Blog Candy Alert!

Enjoli is celebrating her 200th post with some cupcakealicious blog candy. Can anyone have too many cupcake stamps? I don't think so! Click on over and soak up some of her Hawaiian sunshine!

Saturday Sketch Trio

What do you get when you cross an Inspiration Challenge with 3 different Sketch challenges???

These:


Okay, so the Inspiration Challenge over at Splitcoast was an interesting one. The challenge is inspired by a show on AMC called "Mad Men." I've never even heard of this show but I'm thinking I may have to search for it. It's a series set in a Madison Avenue advertising agency in the 1960’s. So there were a couple of pictures posted to give us a starting point. I chose this one:



Are you seeing where I went with this challenge? Come on... think hard... need help??? :o) I took each dress in the picture and made a card inspired by it. But, folks, I didn't stop there - no, siree... I went to my handy-dandy list of challenges that are posted each Saturday and, coincidentally, I found a sketch challenge to go with each dress. AND I got to use my brand-new Verve stamps I got in the mail yesterday!!! So, let's get started:

Paper Craft Planet Sketch Challenge and Dress #1
I'd have to say this one was probably the quickest card I've done in a LONG time. On my computer screen, the first dress looks like it is silvery-grey and she is wearing these FABULOUS bright blue shoes. I grabbed my Basic Grey and Pacific Point (grudgingly...) and got to work. I stamped my new Plain Jane on WW with PP, inked the edges. I used my Nesties to cut out all of the ovals. I think the rest is pretty self-explanatory ~ paper-piercer, white gel pen, Prima flowers, rhinestone brad, ribbon... It is not my usual "embellished-to-death" card but I think it works. Don't worry, though, the "embellished-to-death" card is coming up next!!!

Sketch For You to Try and Dress #2

See what I mean? Talk about BUSY! From the layers to the scallops to the rick-rack to the coloring...it's a bit *more* than I would have liked. The second dress is sooooo beautiful, don't you think? Elegant in it's simplicity but those shoes give it some attitude! I chose Always Artichoke and then found some patterned paper in my stash that also had So Saffron and Cool Caribbean in it so off I went. This time I used my new cupcake stamps from Verve's Cupcake Affair set - I LOVE how you can mix and match tops and bottoms and trimmings!!! Again, it's pretty self-explanatory: layers, rick-rack, nesties, blender pen and ink, Prima flower, button, circle punch, designer label punch and oval punch.

Now for my FAVORITE of the trio:

Our Creative Corner Sketch and Dress #3


What you can't see is how sparkly this card is!! It is "to DIE for" sparkly! I'm telling you, if you don't have any Verve stamps, you NEED to go and order some. These images are from the "Ornamental Christmas" set and they are HUGE images. There are a bazillion sentiments (well, OK, not *that* many, but a LOT!) and you can mix and match again! I grabbed some Old Olive, Taken With Teal and Bashful Blue CS and started cutting. I used my nesties to cut the corner squares and used the branch stamp from the OC set to create a background on the back Bashful Blue layer. I wasn't sure how I was going to get the glittery look I wanted - embossing? Glue??? Coloring and then glittering? I tried a couple of things and neither of them worked. THEN I remembered I had a Glue Pad sitting in my cupboard that I had never used. I got it out, glued it up and stamped the images onto WW CS. Then I got my glitter out and sprinkled it onto the images diagonally, one color at a time, tapping off after each color. SUCCESS!! PERFECTION!!! I stamped the sentiment in Old Olive and added some silver-edged sheer ribbon and silver cord.

What do you think? It took me all morning (and an hour this afternoon getting this post organized!) but I did it! I probably won't be creating tomorrow since it is Grey Cup Day - not sure if I'm going to cheer for Calgary or Montreal (I'm a die-hard 'Riders gal!) but I'm sure it will be a great game.

Enjoy your weekend - happy crafting!

Taylor's Cupcake Challenge and an Extra Project

Happy Friday! I'm not sure what we have planned for the weekend but I'm pretty sure it will involve a trip to Costco - Mother Hubbard's cupboards are pretty bare. And who can go without chocolate for longer than a couple days?

Another great sketch from Taylor this week resulted in this duo:


I'm still not feeling great, the sore throat comes and goes, so I wanted to stick with more subdued tones for this card. I pulled out some scraps from a few weeks ago when I did a mini pizza box and cards and got to work. The DP is from the Manchester package and the CS is Baja Breeze, Kraft and Very Vanilla. I started by stamping the snowflakes from the Snow Swirled set with VersaMark on VV and then clear embossing on top. Then I sponged BB over the surface and the VV CS showed through where I had embossed. I used the same technique for the scalloped sentiment (So Many Scallops). I got to use my Nesties for the very first time when I cut the Kraft scallop circle for behind the sentiment!! I'm not sure where I got the sheer, silver-edged ribbon from but I love the sparkle it brings to the card. (I think it was Michael's after Christmas last year...) The silver brads and the silver snowflake brad seem to tie it all together.

Last weekend at our monthly club get-together, we did stamping on candles. Now, I'd done this technique before but had forgotten how incredibly quick and EASY it is to create a last-minute gift. I had bought a bunch of candles at Ikea a LONG time ago and had put them away with all of my other "alterable" items and forgotten about them. I pulled them out of the cupboard and decided to USE them to make some gifts to have "just in case." Again, I used the Snow Swirled set for the tree and the snowflakes. I stamped the images with BB and Close to Cocoa on white tissue paper and then cut them out as close to the image as I could. I carefully placed the images on the candle a couple at a time and wrapped wax paper over/around the candle. Then I used my heat tool to heat the area to cause the tissue paper image to "sink" into the candle. Voila! Done. I wrapped some BB ribbon around the bottom and secured it with brads.

There - that's it for me today. I think I've just decided to get the kids ready to go to town to meet DH for supper and we can hit Costo afterwards. A quick stop at Scrapbooker's might be in order too. Thanks for clicking over - have a great weekend!

KwernerDesign Challenge #31 - All Alone. . .

I'm reposting this part of yesterday's post because my link was deleted from Mr. Linky. I'm assuming it was because I had a different challenge in the first part of my post and people had to scroll down. . . SO - here's the original post:

I have been doing Kwerner's Color Challenge for the last few weeks and have really enjoyed seeing how others interpret the colors. This week's colors were right up my alley. . .



I bought some Bellas a few months ago but have never used them for a card...until now. I finally bought some EZ Mount to use them with my acrylic blocks and they're all ready to be inked. I LOVE this Bella so she had to be my first - Cuppacakeabella:


Isn't she so CUTE??? I used Julee's Mojo Monday Sketch but I had to make it a 5-1/2" square card to make the image fit properly in the layout. I tried to keep it simple, simple, simple. I used my Martha border punch, colored the image with my blender pen and classic inks, added a few brads, glittered my cupcake icing, cuttlebugged, paper pierced and photo corner punched. I love the look of this card but I'm still trying to get the "hang" of coloring with inks and my blender pen. Can't afford Copics right now so I've got to make do with what I've got.

There - I hope that's better and doesn't get me deleted again! Thanks to those that took the time to scroll yesterday! LOL

Thanks for looking!

'Tis The Season

And I'm not referring to the jolly ho-ho-ho season. . . it's the season to be SICK. I work in a school and the kids are dropping like FLIES right now. I started to feel yucky yesterday and it's gotten progressively worse. So, here I sit at home for the day - I rested a bit after I sent the kids off but I'm feeling good enough to sit down and make a couple of cards. I know, I know. . . I have to take one for the team. That's what I'm all about. ;o)

So, yesterday after school I started a card for the Splitcoast Color Challenge and for Laura's Sketch 13 over at 2 Sketches 4 You. Thanks again, Laura and Kazan for choosing me to be a part of your Fab Five last week! I was honored and extremely excited - especially consdering I didn't think I did the sketch justice! Here's this week's sketch:



The Splitcoast colors this week were Real Red, Basic Black and Kraft. Pretty easy color combination. . . or so I thought. I was in such a fog, I must have changed this card a bazillion times before I finally walked away. For the life of me, I just could NOT get it to look right. I sat down this morning to finish it:


I am not totally thrilled with how it turned out, but I just couldn't *fight* with it anymore. I'm not sure if it's how I layered behind the daisies or the sentiment or the color combo. . . any ideas??? My brads are crooked, too. We all have days when we have to cut our losses or file it in the circular filing cabinet, right? Right? (Please say yes! LOL)

I think it's pretty self-explanatory: I used Upsy Daisy for the main image and the sentiment is from the retired set Love Matters. That's it!

So - that's it for now. I just got a call from DS #1...guess who else is sick and wants to be picked up from school? *sigh* Enjoy your day, everyone! Thanks for stopping in.

Okay, So I Lied. . .

I know - I said I wasn't going to create anything today but I just couldn't help myself. I was checking out challenge blogs and found 3 I could combine into one card. At Stacey's Stamping Stage her Jewelry Color Inspiration #12 was Always Artichoke, Mellow Moss, Only Orange and Whisper White. Again, I had to substitute a color - Pumpkin Pie instead of Only Orange. So, then I clicked over to Our Creative Corner for their challenge: to use silhouette stamps. Hmmm. . . OK, I'm starting to feel inspired so I popped over to I Heart 2 Stamp for her sketch layout:



And this, my friends, is what I came up with:



I used my Inspired by Nature stamps along with the sentiment from Happy Harmony (retired). I used my circle punches, ticket corner punch, paper piercer & sheer ribbon. It's pretty simple when you look at it.

K- now I'm really signing off for tonight. I think I'm going to try to complete the Sketch Challenge over at Paper Craft Planet and combine it with Splitcoast's Inspiration Challenge. Stop back tomorrow night to see what I came up with!

Night!

OMG, OMG, OMG!!!

Guess what? OMG, OMG, OMG. . . I am in SHOCK! OK - so, remember last week when I did Kazan's sketch over at 2 Sketches 4 You??? Well, I MADE HER FAB FIVE group for the week!!! HOLY SMOKES!!!

I've been VERY busy this weekend with classes and stuff so I just had the chance to check her blog out for this week's sketch and clicked on the name "Melissa" thinking, "Cool, someone with my name," and it went to MY page!!! Can you believe it??

WOW - I need to breathe in, breathe out. . .

Nothing new to post today. Maybe I'll get a chance to "catch up" tomorrow. Hope you had a good weekend!