Friday Mashup Fan Favorite Challenge!

This week at the Friday Mashup we have a special challenge for everyone...its the challenge that won our Fan Favorite contest!

Lisa Runyon is the one who came up with the winning challenge and here it is:


1. Make a "Fall themed" project (it's right around the corner, people!).
2. Or Make a Project that uses "Brads...lots and lots of Brads".
3. Or "Mash it Up" and create a fun "Fall themed project that uses lots and lots of Brads".


Some of our trees still have leaves on them but we're supposed to have SNOW showers tonight! I'm so excited!

I pulled out a favorite set for this card, Lovely As A Tree. I watercolored the trees with Cherry Cobbler and More Mustard and used Crumb Cake for the ground. I only used 3 brads, so not lots and lots, but for me, it's alot! Nice and simple card, to the point, just like I like it :0)

Come on by the Friday Mashup and check out all the great cards by the design team and join us by submitting your own project!

 Supplies(all supplies used are SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Lovely As A Tree, Season of Friendship, Plaid Flannel

Paper: Cherry Cobbler, More Mustard, Naturals White

Ink: Cherry Cobbler, More Mustard, Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip

Accessories: Modern Label Punch, Brads, Scallop Edge Border Punch, sponge, aquapainte

Taking a Sleigh Ride

I haven't played along with the Jingle Belles blog in a bit but when I saw the challenge this week I couldn't resist. We're to get inspired by the great song " Suzy Snowflake" by the very talented Rosemary Clooney. I collect Christmas music and this is one of my absolute favorite songs of all times. If you haven't heard it before take a listen:




Lovely isn't it? My favorite part of the song is about the sleigh ride and that was the inspiration for my card. This is a retired set but its one of my favorites and I still use it all the time. I wanted to keep the card clean and simple, like a sleigh ride across the snow.

Christmas Circles

I thought this weeks layout over at Clean and Simple was intriguing so I inked up my Jolly Bingo Bits set to make a Christmas card. That set was one of the ones I just had to have, and yet this is the first time I've used it!

The card size is the standard 4.25x5.5 and I used the 1 1/4" circle punch for my circles. I did try backing them with some Riding Hood Red cardstock but didnt like it. I like the circles just as a single layer much better.

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Jolly Bingo Bits, Bright Christmas
Paper: Naturals White
Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Marina Mist, Soft Suede, Elegant Eggplant, Always Artichoke
Accessories: Riding Hood Red ribbon, 1 1/4" circle punch, dimensionals

Friday Mashup Masculine Squared

Only one more Friday left in September! Where has the time gone? In just over a week I'll start decorating for Halloween and then before I know it Christmas! I love this time of year,so much going on.

And speaking of things going on, its time for another Friday Mashup and this weeks challenge is brought to us by Kasey. Kasey and I usually have very different tastes but this week I am totally digging her challenge, and here it is:

Make a project using the "Square Sketch above ".
Or Make a Project that has a "Masculine" theme.
Or "Mash it Up" and create a "Square Project using the Sketch, with a Masculine theme".

My uncles birthday is in October(so is mine, October is such an awesome month! LOL) so I decided to make a card for him. He lives in Massachusetts and doesn't like to fly,he and his family go on a lot of cruises and he commutes to Boston for work. I immediately thought of The Open Sea set....all of the stamps fit perfectly with a water/cruise/travel theme and the ship stamp makes me think of the USS Constitution, which is located in Boston at Pier 1 ( and is the world's oldest floating commissioned naval vessel!).

Make sure you head over to The Friday Mashup blog to check out all of the DT inspiration, and then play along with us! We love seeing your creations every week!

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: The Open Sea, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Paper: Not Quite Navy, Whisper White, Nautical Expedition DSP
Ink: Early Espresso, Cherry Cobbler, Not Quite Navy
Accessories: Oval Punch, sponge, dimensionals

Christmas Postcard

This week I'm playing along again with the brand new sketch blog, Freshly Made Sketches. Check them out if you haven't already, they have some really great sketches! Their design team also provides some great inspiration!

When I saw this sketch I knew I wanted to grab my Christmas Postcard stamp and make a card with it. I love this stamp but just don't pull it out that often, bad me!

To give the images a little extra pop I used gold stickles for the bells and Xmas Red stickles for the berries. I knew I had done a pretty good job with the card when my 12 yr old son told me he really loved it and that it looked old fashioned to him! He is now my favorite child!! ROFL

Supplies used(all supplies are SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Christmas Postcard, Bells and Boughs

Paper: Always Artichoke, More Mustard, Riding Hood Red, Watercolor Paper

Ink: Black StazOn, Always Artichoke, Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler, Riding Hood Red, Early Espresso, More Mustard

Accessories: Xmas Red Stickles, Gold Stickles, Always Artichoke Brads, Always Artichoke Ribbon, Scallop Trim Border Punch, Aquapainter, Color Sprizter Tool, sponge, dimensionals

CAS-ual Friday Christmas

I've been following the CAS-ual Fridays blog for a bit now, but I dont think I've ever played along. This morning when I saw that they were asking for a CAS no bigger than 4x4 I knew I wanted to go ahead and jump in and play.

I always need some smaller gift sized Christmas cards so I went with a card that is 4x4 and used one of my favorite new sets, Beautiful Season. To give a little pop to the image I used Xmas Red Stickles on the berries.

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Beautiful Season
Paper: Riding Hood Red, Naturals White
Ink: Black StazOn, Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler, Basic Black, Basic Gray, Soft Suede
Accessories: Xmas Red Stickles, CB Swiss Dots Folder, SU Alpine Ribbon, Aquapainter

Enjoying Autumn with Friday Mashup!

Wow, I cant believe its my turn to host another Friday Mashup challenge. Time flies when you are having fun!

Here in my neck of the woods autumn is in full swing and I am enjoying every minute of it...the kids in school, the crisp air, fresh snow on the mtn peaks, and the leaves changing colors and falling to the ground! I grew up in New England, where some of the prettiest fall colors you'll ever see can be found but here in Alaska we pretty much only see our leaves turn shades of yellow and orange(which is pretty too!), hence the inspiration for this weeks challenge (how awesome is the picture Holly found for the graphic? I love it!).

I've been on a retired set kick, and this week is no different. I love this image from the Sweet Seasons set and made it the focal point of my card, with some bright Pumpkin Pie and Daffodil Delight in the background to set it off.

Make sure you come by The Friday Mashup to play along with us....check out the great cards from the design team, leave them some love and then link up your own card!

 The inspiration I got from my own backyard:

Supplies(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Sweet Seasons, Happy Fall Y'All
Paper: More Mustard, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Watercolor Paper
Ink: More Mustard, Pumpkin Pie, So Saffron, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip, Garden Green, Night of Navy
Accessories: Brads, Aquapainter, Square Lattice Embossing Folder, sponge, dimensionals

Fall with Freshly Made Sketches

I havent been stamping much, except for Friday Mashup, but there is a new sketch blog out there that brought me out of my slump today. If you havent heard of it yet go check out Freshly Made Sketches. I always need some inspiration when it comes to layouts and since I've become disillusioned with quite a few other sketch challenges its nice to see a new, "fresh" one out there!


For the sketch this week I went with a fall image, since we're well into autumn here in southcentral Alaska. I used a retired set, as its one of my favorites, as well as some retired DSP that I've been hoarding. I paper pieced the images, with a bit of the blender pen used on some of the images also.

Thanks for looking, and make sure you go check out the challenge!

Friday Mashup Teachers and Stitching

Happy Friday to everyone! Its beautiful here in southcentral Alaska, and I hope its beautiful where you are too! My thoughts have been with those on the east coast of the US dealing with flooding, and with those in Texas affected by all the horrible fires. Stay safe!


This weeks Friday Mashup challenge is brought to us by Heidi and once again the challenge truly was a challenge for me! Heidi wants us to :


So, here's the "Mashup!" challenge:


1. Create a project with "Stitching or Faux Stitching".
2. Or Create a project for "Back To School or a Teacher Gift".
3. Or "Mash it Up!" and create a "Back To School Project with Stitching"!




I dont like to sew, so I went with the faux stitching. Its much easier for me to make some holes and use a white gel pen to connect everything :) I was a bit stumped with the back to school/teacher part. I have 3 kids...my oldest son is a senior this yr, my daughter is a junior and my youngest son is in 7th grade. I dont think I have ever made a specific "teacher card" for any of their teachers over the yrs! I've done thank you cards and different holiday cards but thats about it!


I went ahead and used some colors that come to mind for back to school, at least for me...black and red. I used whisper white and the spiral punch to make notebook paper and my Cricut was used for the apple. I liked the ribbon because it matched my Real Red cardstock but also had some stitching on it to go along with the challenge!


Now head over to The Friday Mashup site to check out all the great projects from the rest of the design team and play along with us!

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Greetings Galore
Paper: Basic Black, Real Red, Whisper White, Garden Green
Ink: Basic Black, Real Red, Garden Green, Bordering Blue
Accessories: Cricut-Best Images of 2006, Modern Label Punch, Large Oval Punch, Spiral Punch, Paper Piercer, Sponge, White Gel Pen, non-SU ribbon, dimensionals

Friday Mashup Gatefold with Numbers

Yeah, its Friday! Its the start of a 4 day holiday weekend and I plan on just bumming around all weekend!

This weeks challenge comes to us from Kim and let me tell you, it made me think. She wants us to make a gatefold card, make a project that incorporates numbers OR you can MASH it up and do both!

I'm not a fan of gatefold cards, I'll be honest. I hate anything where I have to figure out measurements or really think about what I'm doing. I think I've only made 1 other gatefold card in my life and it was a Christmas one so I figured why stray from what I know? This way I knew I could also easily incorporate the number 25, for Christmas.

I decided to keep my card nice and simple because I think when you have a busy background like I do with this DSP you dont need a bunch of other stuff cluttering up your visual. So my card is pretty clean and simple, and to the point! Make sure you go to the Friday Mashup site and play along, and check out all the inspiration from the rest of the design team. As usual you can see I went in a totally different direction than everyone else, LOL.

Once again, here is the challenge from Kim:

Create a card that uses a "Gatefold" .

Create a card that uses "Numbers". (stamped, die cut, chip board etc)
or "Mash it Up!" and create a "Gatefold Card using Numbers"!