A,B,C and 1,2,3 for Friday Mashup

Who else is ready for the weekend? I know I am! Here in the States we're headed into a long holiday weekend, Labor Day. My family and I are going to check out the Alaska State Fair, always a fun time! Before I disappear for the weekend though I've got this weeks Friday Mashup to share with everyone.

Amy is bringing the challenge to us this week and its all about a recipe, specifically the A-B-C 1-2-3 one. Not sure what that is? For the letters you use elements that start with A-B-C...it can be colors, the stamp sets or dies you use, get creative! For the 1-2-3 portion you use 1 embellishment, 2 stamp sets and 3 colors.

This is how I chose to use the recipe:

A: Apothecary stamp set
B: Baked Brown Sugar cardstock
C: Cherry Cobbler cardstock

1: Cherry Cobbler ribbon
2: Apothecary Art and Loving Thoughts
3: Baked Brown Sugar, Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green

As you can see I repeated a few elements but I got everything covered!

Make sure you head over to The Friday Mashup to see all the great projects from the other DT members! I always love seeing how everyone interprets the challenges!

1. Create a project with using "A-B-C (use elements on your projects starting with the letters A, B, C). "
2. Create a project using a "1-2-3 card recipe (1 embellishment, 2 Stamp Sets, 3 Colors) ."
3. Or Mash it Up and create a project "A-B-C & a 1,2,3 card recipe. "

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Apothecary Art, Loving Thoughts

Paper: Baked Brown Sugar, Cherry Cobbler, Cherry Cobbler DSP, Garden Green DSP, Whisper White

Ink: Black StazOn, Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green

Accessories: Big Shot, Framelits Labels, Paper Piercing Tool, Cherry Cobbler Ribbon, dimensionals, sponge

 

Grateful for MDS Monday

It's 2am and everyone in the house is asleep but me, so what better thing to do than get busy playing along with the challenge over at MDS Monday!

Tara has a great sketch for us, and she is also challenging us with an embellishment cluster. I wont lie, I saw the cluster and had a bit of a heart attack. In my paper crafting I am not good with layers or lots of embellishments and trying to do that digitally really seemed out of my league! I put on some Glee episodes for background noise(yes, I'm a Gleek!) and set out to try and conquer the cluster :)

Since fall has arrived in my neck of the woods I went with the new fall DSP, Sweater Weather. I just love this paper and the colors! I tried to pick patterns from this DSP that were colorful but not too busy, and I think I reached a pretty decent balance.

The swirl is a stamp from 'Autumn Elements' and I colored it Chocolate Chip. If you look closely you'll also see that I randomly placed Basic Pearls around the swirl. I thought the area looked a little plain so wanted to give it a little something extra. I also added pearls around the sentiment on the bottom panel. The scallop circle punch is filled in with Sweater Weather DSP and the button is colored in with Crushed Curry. I added Chocolate Chip Bakers Twine to finish it off. Last but not least the sentiment is colored with Chocolate Chip and is from the set ' So Typefelt'.

Before I sign off I'd like to thank Heidi for picking this digital Christmas card as a MDS Monday Master! You made my night when I saw that!

Make sure you head over to the MDS Monday blog and check out the great projects from the design team. I've learned so much about MDS since playing along with them!

Merry Circles for Merry Monday

This week at the Merry Monday sketch is all about circles. I ended up making 2 cards for it. They both use the same DSP but on one card I utilized stamped images and the other one is strictly DSP.

The first card I used the reindeer from the retired set Holiday Lineup. The faces on these guys just crack me up! The circles from the sketch made me think of the spotlighting technique so I kind of had that in mind when making this card with these images.. I used Xmas Red Stickles to give the middle reindeer a bright and happy nose! The center circle is popped up with dimensionals, as are the 2 circles behind it.

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Holiday Lineup(retired), Seasons Greetings(retired)

Paper: Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, Merry Moments DSP

Ink: Black StazOn, Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Chocolate Chip, Real Red, Garden Green

Accessories: Xmas Red Stickles, dimensionals, sponge, various SU circle punches

My 2nd card focused on the snowflakes from the DSP. I used different circle punches to highlight the various snowflakes. Like the first card the largest circle and the 2 behind it are popped up for dimension. I thought the bottom half of the card looked a little plain so I drew in some stitching along the edges and Chocolate Chip candy dots

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: More Merry Messages

Paper: Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, Merry Moments DSP

Ink: Old Olive, Chocolate Chip

Accessories: Chocolate Chip Candy Dots, sponge, dimensionals, various SU circle punches

Also, I didn't get the card done in time, but I did use last weeks Merry Monday sketch for a card, HERE.

Back to School Sketch for Friday Mashup

It's time for another Friday Mashup and this week Liliana is our hostess! She is giving us a sketch, as well as a school theme. Here in the Mat-Su Valley of Alaska the kids started back to school Aug.15 but as a school district employee I went back to work towards the end of July, so we're all trying to get back into a routine. My youngest started high school and getting up at 0630 is hard after a summer of sleeping until 2 in the afternoon!

I don't have a any stamp sets that screamed 'school' at me so I went with a digital card using SU's My Digital Studio program. I used the stamp sets 'A is for Apple' and 'Thoughtful Overlays' to get my school theme. The DSP is from 'On the Go'. The 'A+' is from the 'A is for Apple' set but I created the rest of the sentiment by adding my own text.

Make sure you head over to The Friday Mashup blog to see the rest of the great inspiration from the DT. It looks like a few of us went digital this week!

1. Create a project with the "Sketch."
2. Create a project with a "School theme (books, pencils, rulers, numbers, etc."
3. Or Mash it Up and create a "School themed project using the above Sketch. "

 

Tic Tac Toe for Jingle Belles

This week Stef and Lauren over at the Jingle Belles blog have a tic tac toe challenge for us! I love these type of challenges, I think they are so much fun to work with.

I knew as soon as I looked at the rows which one I wanted. I went diagonally and chose "snowmen" "red or green" and "stamped. Perfect set up for me!

I used my Frosty Friends stamp, these snowmen are just too cute! I also used some of my favorite retired DSP, Frostwood Lodge. I love the rustic, earthy feel of this paper and it goes wonderfully with this stamp.

I included red and green on this card but the red is definitely in the majority. I used Cherry Cobbler bakers twine above the sentiment and also embossed the white panel with the Square Lattice EF. Although its hard to tell in the picture the main image panel is popped up with dimensionals, so its not sitting right on the embossed panel.

I used last weeks Merry Monday sketch, as I didn't find time to play along with their challenge last week.

(sorry for the poor card photo. It's overcast and raining and I'm in a hurry to get dinner made and get ready for work, so I didnt take as much time with my photo as I normally do. I'll try and get a better photo tomorrow!)

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Frosty Friends, Greetings of the Season, Christmas Messages(inside sentiment, not shown)

Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White, Frostwood Lodge DSP

Ink: Black StazOn, Cherry Cobbler, Real Red, Garden Green, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Marina Mist, Pumpkin Pie

Accessories: Big Shot, Square Lattice EF, Cherry Cobbler Bakers Twine, Copic BG10, dimensionals

Autumn Blocking for Friday Mashup

Woohooo, it's Friday! What a week its been....yesterday my youngest started high school and I was a mess. Seems like just yesterday all 3 of my kids were babies and now 2 are out of high school, working and in college. My dad used to say how fast time went by but I never understood until I had kids of my own!

Thankfully I have the Friday Mashup to help divert my thoughts and this week Amanda is our hostess. She has 2 techniques for us to try out: color blocking and clear block stamping. I had never done either of these before so after checking out the tutorials over at Splitcoast HERE I got going on my card.

I used the Magnificent Maple stamp from the holiday catalog. I just love maple trees and contrary to what people think  maple trees can survive in Alaska, although they aren't terribly common. Growing up in New England I always loved the vibrant fall colors of the maple trees!

I kept the design very simple and combined the two techniques, layering the colors right over the top of each other. I spritzed the Crushed Curry and Early Espresso with water but thought it was a bit much so when I did the Tangerine Tango I just put the ink on the clear block and didn't spritz it. I popped the leaves up with dimensionls and sponged their edges with Early Espresso.

I'm not one to gush over my own cards but I have to say I really love how this one came out!

I hope you'll visit us at The Friday Mashup blog to see the great projects from the rest of the design team, and then play along with us!

1. Create a project using "Clear Block Stamping (use your clear block as a stamp)."
2. Create a project using "Color-blocking."
3. Or Mash it Up and create a project using "Clear Block Stamping & Color-blocking."

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Magnificant Maple, sentiment from Truly Grateful

Paper: Early Espresso, Naturals White

Ink: Early Espresso, Crushed Curry, Tangerine Tango

Accessories: Clear Block 'C' size,  Round Corner Punch, sponge, dimensionals

History and a Volcano for MDS Monday

Since I work nights I'm up to 4am every night, even weekends. This can be quite nice, especially when the challenge blogs are updated. I happened to be online when the new challenge for MDS Monday was posted so I opened up my MDS and started creating! Joan has a sketch for us that definitely gets us to put our thinking caps on!

I think the hardest part for me when using MDS is trying to visualize the direction I want to go in. With my stamps and paper I can lay them on my desk, see how things go together and just play around. For the way *my* mind works trying to do this on MDS is much harder. I started with the pictures I was going to use for this project and then I moved to the paper/colors. I knew I wanted to use Gingham Garden but I changed the background about 3 times before I finally settled on the end result. I changed up the 3 layers on the left just a tad by using a flag punch and again used Gingham Garden DSP. All in all I'm pretty pleased with the way the page came out!

 

 

Tags and Colors for Friday Mashup

I'm late but I made it in with my card for this weeks Friday Mashup challenge!

Tara is our hostess this week and not only does she want us to include a tag on our project, she also wants us to use the following colors: Crisp Cantaloupe, Soft Sky, Primrose Petals and Bermuda Bay.

I'm not a big fan of tags and I don't have any of the tag dies so I chose to make a circle tag. It kind of looks like an ornament but hey, as long as I know its a tag that's all that matters right? LOL

In the recent SU order I got one of the sets I bought was 'For the Birds' and so I broke it out for this card. I kept the card pretty clean and simple, with just a heart in the corner of the tag and paper piercing in the corners. My use of Soft Sky was very subtle....I used it on the mailbox and also lightly sponged the edges of the circle with it.

I hope you'll head over to The Friday Mashup blog to check out what the rest of the design team came up with, and we'd love to have you play along with us!

1. Create a project with a "Tag (as an embellishment on you project or as the project itself )."
2. Create a project using the colors "Crisp Cantaloupe, Soft Sky, Primrose Petals & Bermuda Bay".
3. Or Mash it Up and create a project "with a Tag using the color combo above".

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: For the Birds

Paper: Crisp Cantaloupe, Bermuda Bay, Primrose Petals, Naturals White

Ink: Black StazOn, Bermuda Bay, Primrose Petals, Daffodil Delight

Accessories: Big Shot, Stylish Stripes EF, Hearts Framelits, Nestabilities Circles, Paper Piercing Tool, Silver Stretch Cord, sponge, dimensionals, blender pen

 

Digital Christmas for MDS Monday

This week at MDS Monday Heidi has a card sketch for everyone, and also a tutorial for editing a punch shape. I followed the card sketch but didn't do the punch shape editing...all the shapes I have didn't seem to allow the editing(I don't have the chevron punch set that she used).

I went with a Christmas card (sorry Heidi, LOL) and kept it pretty simple(the usual for me on MDS so far). I think I might have this one printed out by SU and see how it looks, maybe I'll go digital for my Christmas cards this year.(I said that to my family the other day and they said 'yeah right' LOL)

Christmas Lodge for Jingle Belles

Time got away from me and I missed last weeks Jingle Belles challenge so I made sure to set time aside today to play along with them. This week they have a great challenge...

                                                        Make a card with a house on it

OR

Make a card with the word "HOME" on it

OR

Make a card that references building materials of some sort, such as wood-grain paper, a brick embossing folder, etc.

 

 

I grabbed the Christmas Lodge set because I love the large home featured in this set. I stuck with traditional Christmas colors and use papers from the retired Frostwood Lodge DSP, some of my most favorite Christmas paper ever! It's a pretty simple card, nothing fancy going on.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Christmas Lodge, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Paper: Garden Green, Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso, Whisper White, Frostwood Lodge DSP

Ink: Early Espresso, Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green

Accessories: Cuttlebug, Nestabilities Standard and Lacey Circles, SU Snow Burst EF, dimensionals, sponge

 

Birthday Poppies for Freshly Made

The husband took the boys to see Wolverine, the daughter is at work and so it's just me and the animals at home today.  I took advantage of the quiet to get some stamping done.

This card was made for the current challenge at Freshly Made Sketches. I think I changed my mind about 10 times before deciding to use the Pleasant Poppies in the center panel, and I'm glad I went with that. I completed ignored this set in the catalog last yr but got it last month and I just adore it!

I picked fall-ish colors, since I am realllllly wanting fall to hurry up and get here. We do have leaves starting to change so I know it's not too far around the corner! I used Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive and Early Espresso, along with Whisper White. The sentiment was popped up with dimensionals.

I'm also going to link this up at The Friday Mashup, since it fits our challenge for this week!

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you are enjoying your day!

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Pleasant Poppies, Itty Bitty Banners

Paper: Pumpkin Pie, Early Espresso, Whisper White, Polka Dot Parade DSP

Ink: Black StazOn, Real Red, Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler

Accessories: Big Shit, Bitty Banner Framelits, dimensionals

Prom Pictures for MDS Monday

The hubby and youngest are out fishing, the oldest is sleeping and the daughter is about to leave for work so I grabbed my laptop to enjoy the quiet time and to play along with MDS Monday!

Rochelle has a great layout for us and I knew as soon as I saw it that I wanted to use my daughters prom pics. Her and her boyfriend attended different high schools so they went to 2 proms this past April. These pictures are from the prom for Lucas's school. They both looked so awesome, we were so proud of them!

I went with a 'less is more' mantra on this one. The blue background is pretty loud so I kept everything else simply, getting the number requirement in at the top and then just using a stamp at the bottom for the sentiment. Courtney and Lucas have been dating 2 yrs and so I thought this particular sentiment was a nice one to use. I then used a heart punch and reduced the opacity to have it highlight the sentiment.

I hope everyone has a great weekend, we finally have rain and cool temps in southcentral Alaska, wooohoooo!

Happy Dots for Friday Mashup

Did everyone have a good week? Mine was super busy! School starts Aug.15 and so at work we're running around like mad to get the building ready. I moved close to 100 old desks from upstairs to the back of the building, and then unpacked 90 new desks. Needless to say by the time I got home I was one pooped gal! Thankfully I had the Friday Mashup challenge to help relax me.

This week Erica brings the challenge to us and she is all about the polka dots! She also wants us to use the word 'happy' on our project.

I decided to go with a Daffodil Delight and Smoky Slate color scheme. Daffodil Delight is such a bright cheery color and it just makes me smile every time I use it. I also decided to use the Pleasant Poppies set for my image. These flowers are so versatile and can be cut into so many sizes after you stamp them. Although most people associate poppies with the color red there are yellow ones out there so I colored them in with Daffodil Delight.

I had trouble finding a sentiment that I liked. I thought the flowers deserved a nice  cheery sentiment and I finally pulled out a sentiment from a retired set called Apple Blossoms. I think it works wonderfully for this card! I also used retired brads(yellow).

My inspiration for the sketch came from this weeks The Paper Players challenge, which I just barely made it in for. I've been looking at this sketch all week, I just love it!

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

1. Create a project with "Polka Dots ".
2. Create a project using "the Word Happy".
3. Or Mash it Up and create a project "with Polka Dots & The Word Happy on it ".

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Pleasant Poppies, Apple Blossoms(retired)

Paper: Smoky Slate, Whisper White, Polka Dot Parade DSP

Ink: Black StazOn, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive

Accessories: Cuttlebug, Swiss Dots EF, Rhinestone Brads(retired), dimensionals