For You

Wow, 2 cards in 1 day? I must be sick!! Actually, I had pretty much the whole day free to do whatever I wanted so I decided to try the latest sketch challenge over at Splitcoaststampers. It was different and caught my eye, and since I have lots of retired DSP that I need to do something with I thought this would be the perfect card to use some on. Here is the sketch and the card I came up with:

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Punch Bunch, Itty Bitty Backgrounds

Paper: Sahara Sand, Whisper White, Rose Red, Bermuda Bay, Soft Suede, Thoroughly Modern DSP

Ink: Bermuda Bay, Rose Red, Soft Suede, Crumb Cake

Accessories: Round Corner Punch, 1 3/8" Circle Punch, 1 3/4" Scalloped Circle Punch, Scallop Trim Border Punch, Paper Piercing Tool, sponge, dimensionals

Shades of Blue

I'm playing along with this weeks Jingle Belles challenge and its presented by June Houck. If you havent checked out Junes blog before you dont know what you are missing. I always look forward to seeing the cards she comes up with!

June and the Jingle Belles crew want us to make Christmas cards using shades of blue. For me that makes me think of serene and peaceful images. I decided to use Marina Mist and Whisper White...I know its not different shades but its still a blue right?

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: A Beautiful Season, Many Merry Messages(inside sentiment, not shown)
Paper: Whisper White, Marina Mist
Ink: Marina Mist
Accessories: CB Swiss Dots Folder, Coluzzle, Marina Mist Ribbon, sponge, dimensionals, round corner punch

Friday Mashup Fan Favorite

Todays Friday Mashup challenge is the first ever Fan Favorite! Friday Mashup fans submitted their own ideas for a mashup challenge, the entries were narrowed down and the voters chose Teresa Klines challenge as the winner. Congratulations Teresa! I hope everyone will head over to the Friday Mashup blog to play along with us this week!

This is Teresa's challenge to us all:

So, here's my "Mash Up!" challenge:

1. Create a "handmade flower or flowers" on your project.
2. Create a project using "turquoise, red, and black".
3. Or "Mash it Up!" and create "handmade flowers" on your project that uses "turquoise, red, and black"!

Now, I feel bad but for the first time since we started the Friday Mashup blog I didnt mashup the challenge. I just cant get into the whole flower craze and trying to make handmade flower(s) just totally surpassed my patience level this week, so I chose to just stick with the great colors that Teresa chose. I never would have thought to use the Tempting Turquoise but it certainly is a nice touch against the black and red!

**I do hate the way this card came out in the photograph. The DSP is not that white in real life and the Very Vanilla looks quite nice against it. I even took the photo in late afternoon when the sun had moved position but it didnt help much!**

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Forever Young, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Basic Black, Tempting Turquoise, Very Vanilla. Timeless Portraits DSP

Ink: Basic Black, Cherry Cobbler

Accessories: Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding, Small Oval Punch

Nice surprise today, and paying it forward!

I had a rough day at work today...there are a lot of changes going on in the school district I work for and one of those changes involved me moving from the school I was at to the one next door. I dont like change, even after all those years of being a military wife! I like my routine and when it gets switched up I get very anxious and just need to work through it. Hence what I've got going on right now! So because of my foul mood I was just sitting on the couch, watching the only daytime TV I can stand(the show The Talk, I love it! Sharon Osbourne and Leah Remini are hysterical) when the little noise on my cell phone goes off telling me I have email. I figured it was probably junk but to my surprise I had a nice comment from Michele, of Michele Hearts Paper, giving me a little blog award. Its the first one I've ever gotten and for such a cool person to consider me worthy just made my day!

Now, as part of it I have to share with 5 bloggers that I think deserve the award, and also share 5 things about myself, so here goes!

About me:
1. I love love love moose. I know, you are probably shocked about that and would have never guessed ;) but yes, its true! One of my favorite things about living in Alaska is looking out my window and seeing a big old moose in my yard!
2. I grew up in Massachusetts and Colorado. Lived in MA until I was 12 and then because of my dads job we had to transfer to CO. I hate CO. MA will always have a part of my heart, I am a New Englander through and through, no matter where I spend the rest of my life.
3. Thanks to my time in the Navy and for marrying my husband 4 yrs into his 20-yr Navy career I've also lived in FL, IL, Northern CA, Southern CA, CT and WA. Out of all those CT and WA were my favorites.
4.I love Christmas. As you can tell on this blog I make Christmas cards all the time, and there is always Christmas music or a Christmas movie going on at my house. When you're friends with me you get used to it :)
5.I love heavy metal and hard rock.

So know you probably know more about me than you wanted too, hehehehe. I'll just go ahead and share with you 5 crafty ladies that just totally rock!

Holly over at Holly Beary Designs---I've known Holly for many yrs now, we used to live right behind each other before the military separated us! Sometimes she is just too damn creative and I want to smack her, LOL.

Karen of  Stamping In The Boonies--I met Karen through Holly, and I can definitely see where Holly gets her talent from. I love Karens style!

Candy over at Stampin With Candy--I recently discovered Candy through a Christmas challenge blog we both frequent and what a talented lady she is!

Lisa of Papergrace Designs--I met Lisa through the same Christmas challenge blog and I knew she was going to be awesome, just by her name alone, hehehehe :)

Last, but certainly not least, Jayme of Closet Stampin', Its Not A Hidden Addiction!--Jayme and her family just transferred to Alaska and she loves it already, which is just awesome. Unfortunately she is close to 300 miles north of me :( If I remember correctly Jayme is the one who told me about the previously mentioned Christmas blog when I met her through the Friday Mashup. I might have that mixed up though because my memory stinks! LOL Anyway, she is another super talented gal whose blog I love to check out!

And go check out Michele, the great crafter who got this blog post in motion by mentioning me on her blog! In one of the Friday Mashup challenges she used a bear image to represent summer and TOTALLY won me over for life with it!

Birthday Fun for Friday Mashup

What a week! I'm so happy its Friday, and that means its time for Friday Mashup! This week our challenge is presented by Kim and guess what?? Her birthday is tomorrow!! So when you go over to the Friday Mashup blog to check out all the design team inspiration make it a point to head over to Kim's space and say HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIM!!

Kim has a great challenge for us this week. You can:


1. Create a Birthday card/project
2. Create a project using NQN, Cherry Cobbler, Always Artichoke, and Sahara Sand
3. or " Mashup it Up!" and create a Birthday project using NQN, Always Artichoke, Cherry Cobbler, and Sahara Sand

I went ahead and MASHED it up and did a birthday card with the color combo. I just LOVE the colors Kim chose this week! I did sneak in a bit of Very Vanilla though, for use as a neutral.

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Happiest Birthday Wishes

Paper: Sahara Sand, Cherry Cobbler, Always Artichoke, Sahard Sand DSP, Night of Navy DSP, Veery Vanilla

Ink: Sahara Sand, Cherry Cobbler

Accessories: Cupcake Builder Punch, Square Lattice embossing folder, Basic Pearls, spomge, dimensionals

Reindeer Games

Last week I didnt make the cutoff to play along with the Jingles Belles blog but I made sure to find some time this week. The challenge this time is to use any type of holiday animal in your design.

I am sure everyone who truly knows me is expecting to see a moose card, and I may still try and get one done, but I actually went with a reindeer this time. I just got a Cricut and one of the cartridges I bought, Winter Woodland, had some reindeer images that I wanted to give a try, so this is what I came up with!

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Petite Pairs, Many Merry Messages(inside sentiment, not shown)

Paper:  Cherry Cobbler, Very Vanilla, Deck The Halls DSP, Bazzill

Ink: Early Espresso, Cherry Cobbler

Accessories: Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding, Cricut 'Winter Woodland' cartridge, Smooch Spritz Silver Foil, small oval punch, dimensionals

Merry Winter with Friday Mashup

I was talking with Holly about the challenge we have this week over at The Friday Mashup blog and she told me these colors would be perfect for a Christmas card and that I should make one with them. I had already done my card for the design team so I made this one last night. I didnt make it in time for last weeks Jingle Belles challenge so I needed a Christmas card anyway to add to my stash!

I've seen mixed reviews on this new Christmas set from the new Stampin'Up catalog but I have no problem admitting it...I think this set is just ADORABLE!! I love the little S'mores looking snowmen!

Go by The Friday Mashup blog and check out all the great cards by the design team and then join us by entering your card!

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Merry Winter

Paper: Old Olive, Early Espresso, Riding Hood Red, Whisper White, Letters to Santa DSP

Ink: Basic Black, Early Espresso, Old Olive, Riding Hood Red, Pink Pirouette

Accessories: Early Espresso ribbon, CB Argyle folder, Oval cut with Cricut, Scallop Edge Border Punch

Friday Mashup 15--Sketch and Colors!

Happy Friday to everyone! I hope you all had a good week! Mine has been nice and quiet. This was my last week off before heading back to work this coming Monday so I've been enjoying my down time.

This week at the Friday Mashup Lesley is bringing the challenge to us! She offers up a color challenge, a sketch challenge OR you can mash it up and do BOTH!

I got a big box of goodies from SU and I was excited to ink up this image from the On The Grow set, which is in the summer mini. I just love this set! I mashed it up and used both the sketch and the colors.

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: On The Grow, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Paper: Old Olive, Early Espresso,Pink Pirouette, Whisper White, Cottage Wall DSP(retired)

Ink: Black StazOn, Riding Hood Red, Pink Pirouette, Old Oliv, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Paper: Old Olive, Early Espresso, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake

Accessories: Old Olive ribbon, Early Espresso ribbon, Modern Label Punch, Square Lattice embossing folder, sponge, blender pen, dimensionals

Old or New....

Over at the Shopping Our Stash blog this week the challenge is to "this week not only are we asking you to part with some of your most hoarded or oldest stash, we are also giving you the green light to bust out the brand spankin' new stuff! We are equal opportunity stash users".

I ended up using a little bit of old, and a little bit of new for this challenge. Stampin'Up released their new catalog July 1st and I got a big box of goodies this past Tuesday, including the stamp set I used here, Up, Up and Away. As soon as I saw this set I knew I had to have it as I have family in Colorado Springs CO that is involved in hot air ballooning. This set will let me make the perfect cards for them!

For the bit of old I used some retired SU DSP. I think its 2 or 3 yrs old, I dont recall for sure. I also used this weeks sketch over at Splitcoast for this card.

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Up, Up and Away

Paper: Bashful Blue, Rose Red, Whisper White, Cutie Pie DSP

Ink: Bashful Blue, Pear Pizazz, Daffodil Delight, Rose Red, Close To Cocoa

Accessories: CB Swiss Dots folder, sponge, dimensionals

Friday Mashup Vintage Flowers

Its the best day of the week again, Friday! You know what that means...its time for another Friday Mashup challenge and this week Kathy is bringing it to us and boy did she send me out of my comfort zone with this one! Kathy says to:

1. Create a project with a vintage look
2. Create a project with flowers
3. Create a project with a vintage look that also uses flowers!

This one really had me stumped for a bit because while I like the look of vintage cards I'm not good at making them, and while I love flowers its generally not something I put on my cards. I started 2 or 3 cards before I finally ended up with this one, and even this card isnt my normal style as the only stamping involved is the sentiment! That is totally not me...usually I pick the stamps that have a lot of detail and need coloring for my cards. This card is all stickers and die cuts! Hope you like it....my husband actually did so I figured I did okay if he liked it, LOL.

Now head over to The Friday Mashup , check out all the other great cards by the rest of the design team and play along with us!

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: sentiment from Thanks For Caring

Paper: Crumb Cake, Old Olive

Ink: Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze

Accessories: Flower stickers from K&Company, Sizzix Branch w/leaves die, small oval punch, dimensionals, sponge, Color Sprizter tool

Friendship

I sat down about 11pm last night and make this quick friendship card. I love this stamp set, its one of my favorites, but I've only used it a few times. Bad me!

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Season of Friendship
Paper: Crumb Cake, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White
Ink: Crumb Cake, Pear Pizazz, Marina Mist
Accessories: Paper Piercer, Curly Label Punch, Modern Label Punch, dimensionals

Stars and Stripes Christmas

Woooohoooo...I had surgery Monday and this is the first card I've made since last weekend. It felt good to sit up and work at my craft desk! I still have to be careful....I cant lift anything over 10lbs, so hubby had to take down my bin that had the Christmas stamp I used in it, and if I want to use my Cuttlebug I'll have to grab the husband or kids to get that all down for me too. I have to go 4 weeks of no heavy lifting so needless to say I'll be going stir crazy soon :) I also want to take a sec to thank those that wished me well for my surgery...it went very well, no problems and by Monday afternoon I was back home in my own bed, passed out cold due to anti-nausea meds and pain meds :) I've watched A LOT of TV the last few days, which isnt like me at all, and boy there is some interesting stuff on TV, ROFL.

Ok, getting back to the card....I LOVE the challenge this week over at Jingle Belles. Because its the 4th of July weekend here in the States they are doing a stars and stripes challenge. I immediately knew what I was going to do. I have had this patriotic snowman stamp for yrs and I just adore it. I'm a Navy veteran and my husband is retired Navy(so I also spent many yrs as a military wife) and *most* of our friends are either still serving or are a retired military family, so I always make some cards with this stamp every year because I know so many people that will truly appreciate it and understand it, although it isnt a traditional Christmas image. I used a star stamp for a background, and there is also the stars on the main image, plus the stripes of the flag. I also used a wooden star for the middle of the ribbon(which has horizontal stripes on it if you want to count that,lol).

And even though I'm a design team member I'm also going to enter this over at The Friday Mashup blog, because our challenge this week is to make a patriotic project, make a project using red, white and blue or mash it up and do both, and this card qualifies for that too :)

I hope everyone in the U.S. has a fantastic Fourth of July weekend and while celebrating our countries independence PLEASE be safe!

**Ok, I dont know if its my computer or blogger but its not letting me link up on phrases here, so go to these websites for the challenges:

http://jinglebellesrock.blogspot.com/2011/07/stars-or-stripes-forever.html
http://www.fridaymashup.com/2011/07/mashup-13-lets-hear-it-for-red-white.html**

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Patriotic Winter by Brother Sister Design Studio, Star Santa, Many Merry Messages
Paper: Real Red, Night of Navy, Whisper White, Watercolor Paper
Ink: Black StazOn, White StazOn, Night of Navy, Real Red, Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green, Pear Pizazz, Marina Mist, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: AquaPainter, Blender Pen, Frost White Shimmer Paint, sponge, wooden star, non SU ribbon