Masculine Stitches for Friday Mashup

This week at The Friday Mashup Holly is our hostess and she would like us to create a masculine project, and also add some stitching to it.

I love masculine projects, probably because I'm more of an earthy, dark colors type of girl. I don't like pink, purple, red, etc,...... give me blues, greens and browns any day.  For this card I went with some of the bold patterns from the Retro Fresh DSP. Not everyone may think that Coastal Cabana and Tangerine Tango are good masculine colors but I like them together! When I used the Tangerine Tango along with some So Saffron on the grass around the moose I was thinking about the rich colors that take over Alaska for a few weeks in the fall, which also happens to be moose rutting season and when you can really see some big bull moose out and about!

I had finished the card when I remembered the stitching. Thankfully I hadn't set the moose image on there permanently yet so I took it and did some faux stitching around the image panel and roughed up the corners a tad. The birthday sentiment is from the Labels of Love set.

Make sure you head over to The Friday Mashup to see all the great projects from the rest of the design team!

1. Create a "Masculine" project.
2. Create a project with some "Stitching/sewing on it".
3. or Create a "Masculine project with Stitching on it".

 

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Walk in the Wild, Labels of Love

Paper: Coastal Cabana, Very Vanilla, Retro Fresh DSP

Ink: Baked Brown Sugar, Tangerine Tango, So Saffron

Accessories: Paper Piercer, Artisan Label Punch, sponge, dimensionals

Get Well for MDS Monday

Whaaaattttt? 2 challenges done for MDS Monday within 24 hrs? I'm on a roll, woot woot! My oldest has to be at work at 4am today, and I drive him, so I figured why bother going to bed for 2 hrs or so just to get up again .I'll hit the hay at 0430 when I get home from taking him(ETA: Its now 0430 and I just got home. It was a great drive in to Wasilla, the Northern Lights were dancing in the sky! Pretty darn good way to start the week!).  This gave me a great excuse to whip out my laptop, work on the new MDS challenge and catch up my DVR'd shows from the week.

Joan has a card sketch for us this week and she'd also like us to try using the opacity feature. That's one of the few features I use regularly so I was pretty comfortable with that. I changed my mind several times on this card.....I think that's why MDS is so hard for me, I cant just throw paper and stamps on my desk and hold them and look them over. I have to keep doing the trial and error on my digital project and that's just really hard for me. I finally decided on using the splatter feature to bring in some color and its also where I used the opacity feature.

I started with a base color of Island Indigo and then using the square punch I created a panel of Whisper White. I matted that with some Pear Pizzazz. For the splatter I used Pear Pizzazz, Melon Mambo and Whisper White. I adjusted the opacity for the Pear Pizzazz and Melon Mambo splatters but left the Whisper White ones alone. The embellishments are Polka Dot ribbons and the sentiment is from Delightful Dozen and I colored it in Melon Mambo.

Have a great Monday, thanks for stopping by and make sure you go check out MDS Monday and play along with them!

State Crazy for MDS Monday

 

I haven't played along with MDS Monday in a while (I know, bad me, its a great challenge blog!) but when I saw the states/province challenge I just couldn't resist. I love geography, especially US geography, and learning new things about the states excites me. After looking at the DT examples I'll be researching Canada some more too (Tara, I'll go with you to Nunavut, it looks like I place I'd get a kick out of!).

I didn't have the Fifty Nifty download so  what a great excuse to get it :) I went with my state, Alaska, and the photos are from a trip we took up to Fairbanks in Oct. 2011. It was the one year anniversary of my dad's passing and my birthday is in the same time frame and I didn't want to be home. On our way north we stopped had some marvelous views of Denali ( aka known as Mt. McKinley to those who don't live here, aka as the highest mountain in North America) and so that's one of my pics on the page. We also went by North Pole AK to Santa's house to see him and do some shopping. For dinner one night we went to Denny's, the most northern one in the world! Some people may see Denny's and go "ew" (said in my best Jimmy Fallon voice) but I tell you, it was one of the best meals we've had and our waitress was fantastic!

The highway to get from my house to Fairbanks is 2 lanes most of the time and its a pretty long drive with no real services offered along the way. When we went up we didn't see many other folks on the road(its different during the summer, tourists galore clogging the highway) and you need to make sure you are prepared for anything. Our weather changes rapidly and our wildlife is plentiful, which means hitting a moose or caribou is a worry. Its a beautiful drive though and one I highly recommend to anyone that comes to visit our state!

Monochromatic Flowers for Friday Mashup

It's Friday and you know what that means...time for another Friday Mashup challenge! This week Cindy is our hostess and just like my title says, she wants to see flowers and a monochromatic scheme!

Now, I did have to laugh at Cindy's comment about northerners wanting spring and are done with winter. I guess it depends on what north you are talking about :) Here in Alaska our winter pretty much never happened. We've had some cold, but nothing like we are used too, and our snow amounts are a joke. I've never seen a winter like this since we moved here and considering I moved to Alaska FOR the cold and snow I'm not happy about it. So please Lower 48, give Alaska its weather back :)

I decided to use the Pleasant Poppies set and I stamped it in Island Indigo on watercolor paper. I took a blender pen and used it on the lines of the flowers to give them a softer look. Then sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes and was also stamped in Island Indigo. Before putting some Island Indigo ribbon around the bottom of the card I sponged the edges of the panel (my daughter was standing there when I started sponging and her comment....oh here we go, mom is sponging again, big shocker....LOL ).

Very simple card!

Make sure you head over to The Friday Mashup to see all the great projects from the rest of the design team, and then play along with us!

1. Create a project that's "Monochromatic".
2. Create a project with "Flowers".
3. or Create a "Monochromatic project with Flowers". 

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Pleasant Poppies, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Paper: Island Indigo, Watercolor Paper

Ink: Island Indigo

Accessories: Blender Pen, Island Indigo Ribbon, sponge

Ornament Inspiration for Tis The Season

It's time for another challenge at 'Tis The Season and this week we have another great inspiration photo for you. I really hope you'll come by and play along with us. We're a new blog, just a few challenges in, give us a try. I'm just a girl who loves Christmas cards :0)
 
From the inspiration photo I tried to draw from the colors and the ornaments. I used the retired color Taken With Teal but after looking the photo more I think Bermuda Bay would have been closer but oh well! The patterns from this DSP worked well with the photo and what I envisioned in my head.

I know there is no red in the photo but I liked it against the teal. I originally was just going to emboss the top red portion of the card with the snowflakes but in the end I did the whole panel and I must say, I really like how it came out. It also came out pretty patriotic looking didn't it? LOL That wasn't intended but I sure don't mind it!

My sketch inspiration came from the current sketch at Sunday Stamps.

Make sure you head over to 'Tis The Season and give us a try, we'd love to help you bring a little bit of Christmas into your day :0)

 

 

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Ornament Keepsakes

Paper: Ruby Red (retired), Taken With Teal (retired), Sahara Sand, Whisper White, Holiday Lounge DSP

Ink: Taken With Teal, Crumb Cake

Accessories: Big Shot, Snow Burst EF (retired), Crumb Cake Ribbon, Sahara Sand Candy Dots, sponge, dimensionals

Busy with shapes for Friday Mashup

I hope everyone had a terrific week! It's been a pretty quiet one in my neck of the woods and that's always nice, I enjoy my quiet time!

Our challenge at The Friday Mashup this week comes from Lynda and she is all about shapes! She wants us to use both hexagons and triangles on our projects! I know you've heard me say this before but I really am trying to avoid the whole hexagon craze, its just not my thing. I do have one hexagon EF so I was able to use that on my project. The triangles were easy.....the Kaleidoscope DSP from the Occasions Catalog was the perfect thing to use!

For my sketch I used the current sketch over at Seize the Sketch. At first I wasn't sure what to use in the star spot but then I thought the film strip from the On Film Framelit dies would be perfect, and the sentiment is from the Peachy Keen set.

Make sure you head over to The Friday Mashup blog to check out all the great projects from the other DT members and play along with us!

1. Create a project with "Hexagons".
2. Create a project with "Triangles". 
3. or Create a project using "Hexagons" & "Triangles". 

 

 

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Peachy Keen

Paper: Basic Black, Bermuda Bay, Strawberry Slush, Whisper White, Kaleidoscope DSP

Ink: Strawberry Slush, Bermuda Bay, Black StazOn

Accessories: Big Shot, Hexagon EF, On Film Framelits Dies, Basic Black Ribbon, sponge, dimensionals

Going Red for Jingle Belles

 

Since today's prompt falls on Valentines Day the Jingle Belle ladies are all about the color red. They want to see that color take center stage on our Christmas cards!

I had to pick my oldest up from work this morning so instead of going back to bed like I normally do(I work nights and don't get to bed until 4am, I'm not a bum, LOL) I sucked it up and just stayed up, which gave me time today for some crafting (although I'm sure I'll be paying for it tonight at work, lol).

I started with an Early Espresso card base and layered some Very Vanilla and Real Red on top of that. I embossed the Real Red with the SU Snow Burst EF. The banners were created with Candlelight Christmas(retired) DSP, I love this paper and bought a few packs from the clearance rack, it is so pretty! I sponged the edges of the banners with Real Red for a more cohesive look.

The sentiment is from the set Welcome Home and was stamped in Real Red and then I fussy cut it and popped it up with dimensionals. I'll be making a total of 5 of these cards, I'll get them finished tomorrow.

My inspiration for the layout came from the latest sketch at the Clean and Simple Stamping blog.

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Welcome Christmas, More Merry Messages(inside sentiment, not shown)

Paper: Early Espresso, Real Red, Very Vanilla, Candlelight Christmas DSP

Ink: Real Red

Accessories: Big Shot, Snow Burst EF(retired), sponge, dimensionals