MU#4--Lets Get Punch "Baby" with Kim!

Happy Friday everyone! Its time for another great challenge from the Mashup crew and this week our challenge comes from Kim! Lets see what Kim has to say:

It's Kim here, and I have a fun challenge for you! I work for a non-profit Christian ministry...and we help mommies and babies! I LOVE babies!! And I love making baby themed cards...for a new born, for a first birthday, even for the first time mom while she is still pregnant! Feel free to make other non-card baby-themed projects.



Now, part 2...Last night was literally the night of a major fund raiser for the ministry, and I have been working long hours trying to get things just right. I am generally a night-owl, but with the extra stress, I have been a little punchy lately...so there's the inspiration for the second part of the challenge!! Bring out your punches...special shapes, pretty borders and corners...even dies and sizzlits that you crank through your Big Shot. Can't wait to see what you create...Time to get Punchy, Baby!!

Isnt this a cool challenge? I'll tell you what, it definitely challenged me! I love babies, but really dont make any baby cards, and then I dont use my dies or punches that much either, so I was really out of my comfort zone! I sat there thinking about it and remembered a card my friend Tera had made for a swap we were in. I grabbed that out of my stash, and went looking for a tutorial, and this is the one I used.

Now, I originally started my card out intending it to be for a boy, since one of my daughters best friends is due to have a baby boy in about a week. It looks like somewhere along the way my brain had a different idea and the finished product is definitely girly. Oooops!

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Punch Bunch

Paper: Bashful Blue, Whisper White, Delicate Dots DSP

Ink: Marina Mist, Bashul Blue, Certainly Celery, Summer Sun

Accessories: Small Tag punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, 1 3/4" circle punch, Scallop Circle punch, Whisper White ribbon, brads, sponge

Head over to The Friday Mashup and link up your creation!! Make sure you link directly to your project though please, not just to your blog, and if you're uploading to any online gallery use FM04. Cant wait to see all the great cards!

Recycling with Jingle Belles

Whew, its been non-stop for me the last few days and I had to find some time to sit down and get the Jingle Belles challenge done! The challenge came from a suggestion from Kathe Deck:

kathe's theme idea was inspired by the junk mail she received one morning at her office; she threw away (recycled) the innards, but the envelope was red vellum! she had to take it home, thinking "It would be good for something...oh, it would be great for a Christmas card... wouldn't it be really great if the Jingle Belles gave us reuse/recycle theme? Maybe they'd tie it to Earth Day or something like that..." since we actually hadn't thought of that yet, we are thrilled she sent it along!



so this week we'd like to inspire you to look around your house--or your office-- and see what you can re-use, re-purpose, re-cycle or up-cycle. maybe there's a fabulous red vellum envelope in YOUR mailbox, some string or twine in the kitchen, or even a bit of corrugated cardboard in the garage? Is there a gorgeous glossy advertisement in the magazine you've just finished, or some packaging from your art supplies that is so beautifully designed you can't bear to throw it out? it's time to think outside the box, belles... or even about the box, itself!!! :)


The main thing that I hoard...drumroll please, because its such a shocker....CHRISTMAS CARDS!! Ok, so that really wont surprise anyone that knows me. I LOVE Christmas cards and it makes me sad that my Christmas card list gets shorter every yr, because so many people are turning to email/ecards. Just not my thing :(  So anyway, I went into one of my stashes and found a card with this great scene! I just loved the  polar bears with the penguins......let me tell you, if I had a dollar for every person that has asked me about seeing penguins since I live in Alaska, LOL. Sorry folks, we have polar bears north of me, but no penguins in Alaska. But back to the card....I trimmed the scene from the original card, layered it on some Night of Navy and then put it on Riding Hood Red cardstock that had been embossed with the CB Swiss Dots folder. A quick and easy card just by recycling a previous card!

MU3 Black n' White & Square from Lesley

It's Friday already? Thank goodness! Not only is it the end of the work week, but it's also time for another Mashup challenge! Got your creative juices flowing? Good, because this week Lesley gives us a FANTASTIC challenge! Check out what Lesley has to say:

This week I am so excited to be the challenge hostess and I hope you will get the chance to play along with us! I found these adorable Black and White teapots and I loved the designs on them! I thought they would translate into a good card! Of course, the teapots are just an inspiration, I can't wait to see what you do with the Black and White theme!



This week for our Mashup Challenge, you are welcome to:
1.Create a Black and White Card
2.Create a Square Card
3.Or "Mash it up" and create a Square Black and White Card!
You can participate by linking up your new project in the linky tool found at the end of each post. It can be a link to a post on your blog or a link to an Online Galllery. We ask that the link be directly to the project you are submitting for the challenge, so we can find it. If you are linking to an online gallery please use the Keyword FM03.

Make sure you head over to The Friday Mashup blog to see what everyone on the design team came up with, enter your own card and then go leave some love for your fellow Mashup players! I know I love seeing all the great cards every week!

I went ahead and mashed it all up! I havent done a square card in a while and I dont think I've ever done just a black and white card, so this was a great challenge for me to try something different.

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Happy Harmony

Paper: Basic Black, Whisper White

Ink: Basic Black

Accessories: CB D'Vine Swirl folder, CB Flourished Frame folder, Basic Black ribbon, sponge, dimensionals

Patriotic and Little Girls

This week The Color Throwdown gave us these colors: Navy, White and another color of your choosing. I loved this challenge so much I ended up making 2 cards for it!

My first card used Night of Navy, Whisper White, and Cherry Cobbler. I used the CB folder Distressed Stripes and some Riding Hood Red ribbon to bring it all together. I love this stamp from SU. I'm a Navy vet, my husband is retired Navy, and I love anything patriotic!

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Land of the Free

Paper: Night of Navy, Whisper White, Cherry Cobbler

Ink: Night of Navy, Cherry Cobbler

Accessories: Riding Hood Red ribbon, CB Distressed Stripes folder, sponge, dimensionals

My 2nd card incorporates this weeks Clean and Simple challenge from Splitcoast, along with The Color Throwdown. This time I used Night of Navy, Whisper White and Daffodil Delight. How sweet is this image of 2 little girls? Its funny that I like it so much because I am SOOO not a girly-girl, LOL.

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: The Nicest Things

Paper: Night of Navy, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White, Night of Navy DSP

Ink: Black StazOn, Night of Navy, Daffodil Delight, Pear Pizazz, Chocolate Chip

Accessories: Night of Navy ribbon, Scallop Trim Border Punch, dimensionals

DIES with Jingle Belles

Its time for another challenge over at the Jingle Belles blog and this week Stef and Lauren say:

Create a Christmas card to die (cut) for! This week we're featuring *DIECUTS* in our cards. They can be store bought, mechanically made (a la cuttlebug), electronically generated (think cricut or spellbinders), or... if you're feeling ambitious... all of the above?!

**I had to come back and edit my post because I left out a very important part of this weeks challenge, and I have to apoligize for that! I'll blame it on being very tired when I originally posted last night......This week the Jingle Belles blog is having a cross-over with the Betty Bee's Buzz blog. One of their designers, June Houck, did a guest spot for Jingle Belles, and Lauren, 1/2 of the Jingle Belles team, was a guest on Betty Bee's. How cool is that? You can enter your card on BOTH blogs. Doesnt that just make you want to DIE....die cut that is!



I'm not going to lie, this challenge wasnt easy for me. I think it ranks up there with the 'make a funny card' challenge in terms of stumping me. I'm really not into die cuts so I pulled out the main one that I do use, the Sizzix Top Note. I played around with several stamp sets, wasnt satisfied with any of the results and finally ended up with this card.

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Scenic Season
Paper: Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, Ski Slope DSP
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Soft Sky
Accessories: Chocolate Chip ribbon, Sizzix Top Note die, Dazzling Diamonds, sponge

Mashup #2 Challenge and Designer

I'm so happy to announce that I've been chosen to be a member of the The Friday Mashup! Challenge blog. I'm really excited to work with all the ladies and see all the great cards that everyone comes up with! So please, head over to The Friday Mashup! and check everything, and everyone!, out.

So what do we have for you this week? Well, Holly and Kathy offer you this:

1. Create a card using the colors Marina Mist, Crumb Cake and Cajun Craze
2. Create a card with the provided sketch
3. Or MASHUP the challenge and create a card with both #1 and #2

Here in Alaska the snow is melting and the ice on the lakes and rivers will start disappearing soon. My husband and youngest son are just itching to get out there and do some fishing(they didnt do any ice fishing this winter,boo!) so I whipped up this card with the 2 of them in mind!

Dont forget, head over to The Friday Mashup! blog to join our challenge, and dont forget to check out all the other cards submitted and leave some love for your fellow stampers!

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Fishin',Flannel Plaid, Rough Edges Alphabet

Paper: Marina Mist, Crumb Cake, Cajun Craze

Ink: Black StazOn, Cajun Craze, Crumb Cake, Marine Mist, Pear Pizazz

Accessories: Scallop Border Punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, Scallop Circle Punch, sponge, dimensionals

Spring Branch Out

I was able to play along with this weeks color challenge and sketch challenge over at Splitcoast, which isnt something I've been able to do in a few weeks. The color challenge used So Saffron, Pretty In Pink and Pear Pizazz while the sketch challenge had 4 layers. Spring is starting to arrive in southcentral Alaska, with melting snow and longer days of daylight creeping in, so I thought a nice springy(is that a word?)card would do!

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Branch Out, So Very
Paper: So Saffron, Pretty In Pink, Pear Pizazz, Whisper White, Tea Party DSP
Ink: Pear Pizazz, So Saffron, Pretty In Pink, Close To Cocoa
Accessories: Scallop Circle Punch, 1 3/8" Circle Punch, Dimensionals

White, Presents, Traditional

This week over at the Jingle Belles blog the challenge involved a few different things. Clare from Miscanthus Crafts came up with this recipe:



the ingredients are:
1 - as white as a ghost
2 - a present
3 - a bow or knot
4 - a touch of traditional Christmas colours

I knew instantly which stamp I wanted, the Sleigh Full of Toys set. Its one of my all time favs! I also used one of the older sketches from SCS...I think its number 120? I've got the white background embossed with dots and for traditional color(which for me is red and green) I Incorporated green DSP and colored the presents 2 shades of green and 2 shades of red.

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):
Stamps-Sleigh Full of Toys, Best Yet
Paper- Whisper White, Certainly Celery, Wintergreen DSP
Ink- Certainly Celery, Real Red, Ruby Red, Pear Pizazz, Black StazOn
Accessories: CB Swiss Dots folder, Curly Label Punch, Certainly Celery ribbon, dimensionals

So excited---new challenge blog!!

Those who visit this blog regularly have heard me mention my friend Holly over and over. She is so damn creative that sometimes I just want to smack her!! ROFL We met as military wives stationed in WA state and although I had stamped before, I had gotten out of it as I had one child, then another, and then our 3rd! Holly introduced me to Stampin'Up and helped me get back to stamping and having girl time!

Why all of this talk about Holly? Well, because she has started a new challenge blog and I am so excited to see what my uber-talented friend comes up with! Today the blog went live and I am so honored that she asked me to make a card for this challenge! Head over to The Friday Mashup! right now to see the challenge, some great cards for inspiration and then submit your own card!! You know you want too!

Ok, so here is how it works.We're Mashing up Butterflies with Dimension! We wanna see Butterflies popped up, 3-D projects or just show use some Butterflies. With all of our challenges, you can choose which of the themes you want to use on your project. But I think most of you will wanna Mashup it up!

For my card I wanted something a bit elegant and simple. Coming by my blog you'll see that I'm not one for a lot of layers or bling. I'm a pretty simple girl living in the woods in Alaska, and I like my cards to be simple too. I started with Basic Black as the card base, added a layer of Daffodil Delight, and then put on the final layer, which is Very Vanilla embossed with a CB folder. I then stamped the sentiment in Basic Black and popped up a a single butterfly next to it.  I stamped the butterfly in Cherry Cobbler and then added some silver Smooch Spritz to it. When I showed it to my 15 y/o daughter the first thing she said was "its pretty fancy"(for me), so I knew I had done what I wanted too(she's my toughest critic!).

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Flight of the Butterfly, sentiment from Yummy

Paper: Basic Black, Whisper White, Very Vanilla, Daffodil Delight

Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Basic Black

Accessories: CB Scrollwork folder, Silver Smooch Spritz

Christmas Funny

This week over at the Jingle Belles blog the ladies are working their funny bones! Because challenge day fell on April Fools Lauren and Stef put forth the following challenge: So yes....this week is Jingle Belles, Batman Smells...we're asking you to make a humorous card for the holidays.It can be a bit twisted, silly or just plain laugh-out-loud funny...just incorporate some holiday levity into your design.

I pretty much groaned in defeat when I saw the challenge. Those who know me in person know that I love to laugh and have a very sarcastic sense of humor. However when it comes to my cards I NEVER make/send any funny cards. I'm always so serious, and I figured I'd just have to sit out this challenge.

Yesterday I decided to go through my bin of misc Christmas stamps to see if I potentially had anything that could be deemed "funny", and I found this stamp that was given to me by my cousin a few years ago. I figured the caption could provide a chuckle and I'm sure that many folks could relate to it!

If you want to see some seriously gut busting cards, head over to the Jingle Belles blog and check out the submissions. I was giggling like mad yesterday!! (and I always try and comment on the other cards submitted, but my computer is being very temperamental right now so please dont think I'm ignoring anyone! I love all the inspiration provided by the different cards submitted!)

Here is what I came up with. Sorry the picture isnt that great..its snowing here today and the light in the house wasnt that great no matter where I set up! Thats ok, I ♥ me some snow!

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: main image stamp by unknown, background snowflakes from SU Holiday Sampler
Paper: Old Olive, Whisper White, PP from S.E.I. Glitzmas
Ink: Black StazOn, Old Olive, various SU markers
Accessories: Old Olive ribbon, dimensionals