Sunday Morning Four-in-One

Hello chickies!

I was up kind of early this morning. . . why is it when you {can} sleep in, your body says you {can't}?  I took it as an opportunity to put a Berry Crisp in the oven for breakfast and then peruse the blogs to see if I could conjure up a quick card.

What did I find?? I found four amazing challenges that seemed to be perfect for each other.  First of all, Embellish Magazine has another pretty combination this week - not colors I'd normally put together or even use:

I popped over to Paper Sundaes and discovered that their challenge this week is a Recipe Challenge: Use 4 flowers, 3 buttons, and 2 designer papers on your card.  As soon as I read that I KNEW which sketch I was going to use because it was a-match-made-in-heaven-perfect for this recipe!  Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch is a beauty (as usual):

After I had those three challenges put together in my brain, I needed an image or sentiment so I clicked over to Sentimental Sundays to check out the freebie digi images for this week and discovered the most perfect one - along with the challenge to use ribbon on your card.  Ummm....hello?  Ribbon's what I {do}!  LOL  So, off I went to create - - - wanna see?

Stamp: Digi image from Sentimental Sundays  Paper: Very Vanilla, Sage Shadow, peach-y Bazzill, SU! DSP, unknown polka dot paper  Accessories: Various ribbons, CutUps Flowers Die (TCP), hemp twine, buttons, paper piercer, scor-tape

I'm not sure if this card qualifies for the second part of the Embellish Challenge for a quirky-cutesy-clean style but it's the best I could do!  I actually love the soft color combination and the sketch was so perfect, how could I not use it?  I did have to squish the flowers together a bit to make the sentiment fit properly but I think the basic gist of the sketch is still there...right?

Thanks for stopping by - I love to have visitors and appreciate the time it takes for you to stop and take a peek.  See you tomorrow with another two cards and three more challenges!

Curtain Call - Act 43 and the Dreaded Pacific Point...

Hello and Happy Sunday!

Here's a fabulous, bright, cheery color combo for you courtesy of Stacey's Curtain Call Color Challenge.  I love these colors - except for the Pacific Point.  *sigh*  I am really trying to {embrace} this color... I even bought the new Blueberry Crisp DSP from the new SU! catalog to help me with the process. 

I was trying to get a couple of cards done at the same time and needed a quick, simple sketch for this card and found a good one over at Taylor's Sketch Challenge.  I altered it a little and made a regular sized card instead of a long, skinny one like the sketch:

Recipe - Stamp: Cherry Blossoms (Flourishes)  Paper: Pacific Point, Whisper White, SU! DSP, unknown DSP  Ink: Pacific Point  Accessories: TCP CutUps Die (Flower Buttons), buttons, paper piercer, hemp twine, Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder, die cut tag, EK Success border punch

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 43 creation using Mr. Linky back over at Stacey's Stamping Stage.

I can't wait to see what y'all do with these colors - especially the Pacific Point.  *wink*  Have fun!

Two Throwdowns + Taylor's Sketch Challenge = ... joy in the little things

Hey there, crafty peeps!

Here's a quick post for you all - it is almost time for me to turn into a pumpkin and I wanted to get this posted before I head to bed.  I was out all day at work and then to town with my PIC, Lori, to get our nails done so when I got home I wanted to browse the blogs and check my email.  That was {all} I was going to do...until I saw the sneaky peeky on the Color Throwdown Facebook page:

Then I clicked over to a new-to-me challenge blog, Tuesday Throwdown, and discovered that their challenge for this week is Spotlighting.  I LOVE this technique but just don't use it very often so I was thrilled to take a crack at it again.  I remembered seeing Taylor's sketch this week and knew it was perfect for spotlighting:

I dug out my Cherry Blossoms set from Flourishes and a sentiment from Verve...

What do you think?  Isn't this sketch perfect for spotlighting?  I had a hard time with the Artichoke and Soft Suede together since it is kind of hard to tell the two apart from a distance but I think I made it all work. 

Thanks for stopping by - I hope you are enjoying your week!

Mojo Monday and Embellish Magazine Color Challenge

One more quick card from me today - I had a bit of time after I got home from work since my DS decided that he would take care of dinner... gotta love a helpful teenager.  :)

I have seen many people take part in the Embellish Magazine challenges before but have never participated.  These colors were PERFECT for some paper I've had FOREVAH' but haven't been {inspired} to use... until now.  In addition to using the inspiration colors, we also had to use birds somewhere on our card.

I used Julee's {as usual} fabulous Mojo Monday sketch but had to lower the top panel a bit in order for the card to look right so some of the bottom panel peeks through at the top:

Stamps: {Swirls}, {Tweet Wishes Lucy} Little Paper Shop  Ink: Chocolate Chip, Purely Pomegranate, Kiwi Kiss  Paper: Whisper White, Purely Pomegranate, Brown Bazzill, Kiwi Kiss, imaginisce DSP, My Mind's Eye DSP  Accessories: Scallop Edge Punch, adhesive pearls, paper piercer, sponge dauber, Nestabilities, Purely Pomegranate satin ribbon

Thanks for stopping by for a peek - I had fun making this one and FINALLY being able to use this funky Argyle pattern DSP. Have a great week!

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!