Friday, February 27, 2015

Wish you were here.....

Today's card is for a challenge taking place over at the Lawn Fawn Flickr group. They want you to use Lawn Fawn products along with kraft on your project (you can also do Simon Says Stamp products or combine SSS with Lawn Fawn, I only used Lawn Fawn on mine).

I used the Lawn Fawn Sets Wish You Were Here and Wish You Were Here Too. I was so happy when Lawn Fawn came out with the Alaska stamp and die! I stamped the US on kraft paper and then also on some paper from the Lawn Fawn Snow Day collection. I fussy cut  (I thought I had bought the matching dies to WYWH but ooops, need to get those!) them out and adhered the green one to the kraft paper so it was more stable. I then did the same thing with the Alaska stamp, but actually had the die for that one :) The arrow was fussy cut and all 3 layers are popped up for dimension. The arrow is pointing to the area I live in, an hour north of Anchorage.

My idea for this card came from a popular photo that gets shared on Facebook a lot by proud Alaskans :)





Stamps: Wish you were here, Wish you were here too
Paper: Kraft (SU-retired), Lawn Fawn Snow Day collection
Ink: Early Espresso (SU)
Accessories: Round Corner Punch, Paper Piercing Tool, dimensionals

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Antique Embossed for Friday Mashup

This week at The Friday Mashup Tara is bringing us the challenge and I won't lie, this was a tough one for me. She wants use to create a project with an antique style, element or theme. She would also like us to try the Embossed Embossing technique, you can see the tutorial for that HERE.

When I think antique muted comes to mind, along with yellows and browns. It's hard though because antique can be defined in so many different ways and my brain just kind of shuts down when asked to create something in this style. I pulled out the Apothecary Art set though and sat down to try and figure something out!

I stamped the image in Memento Tuxedo Black on watercolor paper and then used aquapainters to color in the image. I used Pear Pizzazz, Daffodil Delight and Crushed Curry with a light background wash of Crumb Cake. It was adhered to a panel of Very Vanilla that was embossed with the Fancy Fan TIEF and embossed with opalescent embossing powder. This gave the embossed sections a darker hue of yellow with some shine to it. It was hard to capture in the photos but in person it looks terrific! To finish it off I colored some pearls with the 'light' Crumb Cake Blendability marker.

Head over to The Friday Mashup blog to see how the rest of the DT interpreted the challenge and then play along with us!

Don't forget, one more week until our big 200th challenge celebration at The Friday Mashup!!

  • Create a project with an "Antique Style, element or theme".
  • Create a project using the "Embossed Embossing technique" (tutorial) .
  • or Mash it Up! and create an "Antique project using the Embossed Embossing Technique". 



Stamps: Apothecary Art
Paper: Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, Watercolor Paper
Ink: Crumb Cake, Daffodil Delight, Crushed Curry, Pear Pizzazz, Early Espresso
Accessories: Big Shot, Fancy Fan TIEF, Labels Collection Framelits, Basic Pearls, sponge, dimensionals

Thursday, February 19, 2015

Taking Flight for Friday Mashup

Happy Friday and thanks for coming by the Friday Mashup! Lisa here with this weeks challenge for you......I've got a sketch for you and I'd also love to see anything flight themed on your project. You could use a hot air balloon stamp, or maybe you want to make a little kite. Use whatever you want as long as it's something that can take flight. I can't wait to see how you all interpret this!


This week's Mashup Challenge:

  • Create a project using the "Sketch". 
  • Create a project with anything "Flight Themed (hot air balloon, plane, kite, etc)"
  • or Mash it Up! and create a project "using the sketch and anything flight themed".

Stamps: Celebrate Today
Paper: Sahara Sand, Whisper White, Best Year Ever DSP
Ink: Coastal Cabana, Crushed Curry, Calypso Coral, Soft Suede, Versamark
Accessories: Coastal Cabana ribbon, Dimensionals

Sharing an Article

Scroll down for my 'Tis The Season post......

This is an excellent article and I wanted to share it because I deal with this frequently, as do many of my crafting friends. It's one thing to be inspired by someone and to try and create something similar while giving credit to the original idea, it's downright rude to blatantly steal a design. I have found my pictures and designs used before, with people claiming it as their own and that is wrong. I share my work because I love to make cards and I know there are others out there who enjoy the same thing. I see wonderful cards every day that inspire me but I would NEVER copy someones card and claim it to be my own original design. I would also never steal someones photograph. Despite what people think posting a photo on your FB or blog does NOT make it a public photo for anyone to grab and use how they want.

Be creative. Have fun. But don't steal from others.


Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Nature's Colors for TTS36

It's time for another challenge at 'Tis The Season and this time we have a color challenge. This challenge is right up my alley, I love outdoor colors and the darker the shade the happier I am!

I decided to use the Ornamental Pine set for my card. I used the colors Garden Green and Early Espresso to color in my branch, and then I used Early Espresso to color in the pine cone. I cut out the pine cone and then adhered it to the card, pulling up the edges for a little dimension.

My layout is from a recent Sunday Stamps sketch. I used Trim the Tree DSP for the strips along the left side. Nice and easy card!

I hope you'll come by the 'Tis The Season blog and join us. You don't have to use SU colors, any colors close to these ones will work!



Stamps: Ornamental Pine
Paper: Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Trim the Tree DSP Paper Stack
Ink: Garden Green, Early Espresso
Accessories: Sponge

Monday, February 16, 2015

Bird Love

To start off the week I'm playing along with The Paper Players (and I had also intended to play along with Freshly Made Sketches but due to a reaction from pain meds I spent all day yesterday sleeping and missed the FMS deadline this morning, oh well, what can ya do!) and the theme from Joanne, which is birds. I love birds and am always watching the ones at my feeders.

I grabbed the set For the Birds and chose the fun image of the wagon with flowers and a sweet little bird chirping away. My papers are from the Fresh Prints DSP paper stack.

Thanks for stopping by!



Stamps: For the Birds
Paper: Crumb Cake, Real Red, Whisper White, Fresh Prints DSP
Ink: Various Copics and Blendabilities, Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: dimensionals


Thursday, February 12, 2015

Party Animals for Friday Mashup

This week at The Friday Mashup  Heidi is our hostess and she would like us to create a project with a farm animal in honor of the Chinese New Year and to also include some party bling on it. She says "bonus points to anyone who has a goat on their project as it is the Year of the Goat".

Heidi's Chinese New Year challenges always scare me because I never have anything that I think represents it well. Thankfully this year SU had the perfect stamp in their Occasions catalog, the From the Herd set. It even has a goat so I had all bases of the challenge covered, woot woot! I added sequins as my bling but didn't add any other party themed stuff like hats or balloons because the looks on the animals faces just crack me up and seemed to go perfectly with the sentiment I used on the front of the card.

I wasn't sure how to place my image but thankfully Sunday Stamps had the perfect sketch for this image and once I had their sketch in front of me everything about the card came together pretty quickly!

Head over to The Friday Mashup to play along with us and don't forget to also stop by Sunday Stamps and check out their challenges!


***Friday Mashup 200th Challenge Celebration Coming Up on March 6***


  • Create a project with a "Farm Animal". 
  • Create a project with "Bling".
  • or Mash it Up! and create a project "using a Farm Animal with some Bling".



Stamps: From the Herd
Paper: Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Sweet Taffy DSP
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Blendabilities: Old Olive, Marina Mist, Crumb Cake, various skin tones, Daffodil Delight,  Blushing Bride, Pink Pirouette, Sahara Sand
Accessories: Sequins from Pretty Pink Posh

Monday, February 9, 2015

Kinda Eclectic Sketch

I had some free time this afternoon and so I sat down to play along with the sketch over at Stampin' Celebration. The sketch had me stumped for a bit but I decided to think outside of the box and my comfort zone a little, and that's where the SU set Kinda Eclectic came in. I don't think I've used this set since getting it last year!

I stamped the diagonal portion in Old Olive,two strips one on top of the other. Then I stamped the sun in Daffodil Delight over the Old Olive portion. The butterfly was stamped in Cherry Cobbler and punched out. I added some small Basic Pearls to the butterfly for a little detail. The sentiment was stamped in Night of Navy. To finish the card off I did some paper piercing around the edges.

Make sure you head over to Stampin' Celebration and play along! 


Stamps: Kinda Eclectic
Paper: Old Olive, Whisper White
Ink: Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler, Daffodil Delight, Night of Navy
Accessories: Butterfly Punch (retired), Paper Piercing Essentials Pack, Basic Pearls, dimensionals

Saturday, February 7, 2015

You're a Great Catch!

I recently won a gift certificate to SugarPea Designs and I have had my eye on their set Great Catch so I knew right away what I was going to get. Living in Alaska we have so many opportunities for great fishing, most within a short walk/drive of the house. My husband and boys spend every free moment in the summer out trying to bring some fish home. I've still got salmon in my freezer they caught last summer, yum!! Anyway, this set is perfect for a house full of fisherman!

As soon as I saw the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches I wanted to try and use this set for the first time. I tried coloring the raccoon a few different ways but ended up going with water coloring. The hubby and boys all have brown and green fishing gear so that's where I drew my color inspiration from and I happened to have some retired SU DSP that worked perfectly with the color scheme! I fussy cut the raccoon and popped him up with dimensionals.

The husband and boys don't normally gush over my cards but they loved this one, go figure :)

*I'm  playing along with the Let's Get The Party Started linky party at Paper Issues* (celebrating love and nature!)


Stamps: Great Catch (SugarPea Designs)
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla, Woodland Walk DSP (retired) (all SU)
Ink: Smoky Slate, Old Olive, Soft Suede, Chocolate Chip, Basic Black
Accessories: SU Watercolor Crayons (retired), Chocolate Chip Ribbon (retired), Big Shot, Large Polka Dot TIEF, dimenionals, SU Dazzle Marker-Silver

Thursday, February 5, 2015

Showing the Love for Friday Mashup

Happy Friday! It's time for another Friday Mashup and this week Holly is our hostess with the mostess and she wants us to use the colors red, pink and white along with creating a project with a 'love' theme.

Now I fully admit that projects like this are hard for me. I don't like the color pink and trying to incorporate it always seems to stump me. I sat for a while staring at my ink pads and stamps before I finally decided what I was going to do. 

I used the Snuggles and Smooches set and using Real Red I stamped the thin line circle and then I also stamped part of the sentiment with Real Red. Using Blushing Bride I stamped the circle with the sentiment and then cut it out, popped it up and then used Blushing Bride to stamp "my silly". I cut out "Valentine" and popped it up next to the "my silly" so it reads "Snuggles and Smooches my silly Valentine".

To fill in some of the white space on the top of the card I popped in 3 sequins, and then I used Real Red ribbon to separate the top and bottom sections. My layout is from a recent Paper Players challenge. 

We also have some exciting news for The Friday Mashup! Our 200th Challenge anniversary is coming up!! How exciting is that? There are some great sponsors lined up and you aren't going to want to miss joining in on the fun for this!! Keep a close eye on the blog as we draw closer to the big celebration!

As for this week, head over to The Friday Mashup and check out what the rest of the DT came up with, and then play along with us!


  • Create a project with the colors "Red, White & Pink". 
  • Create a project with "a Love theme". 
  • or Mash it Up! and create a "Love themed project using the above colors".




Stamps: Snuggles and Smooches
Paper: Real Red, Whisper White, Maritime DSP
Ink: Real Red, Blushing Bride
Accessories: Real Red Ribbon (retired), Sequins (non-SU), dimensionals

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

A Campy Christmas for Tis The Season

This week at 'Tis The Season we have a fun inspiration photo. I decided to use the camper and car as the inspiration behind my card as I have the perfect set from Lawn Fawn to use!

I grabbed the Happy Trails set and matching dies to stamp the trailer, car and tree. The colors I used on the camper and car were also inspired by the photo, the wire brush trees in the background.

To create my scene I used the Forest Border die to create the treeline and then the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug EF to create a look of falling snow. I used a snippet of paper from the Snow Day collection to make it look like a snow covered dirt road that the vehicles are traveling on, bringing their Christmas tree home.

To finish it all off I popped up the panel with dimensionals on a base of Whisper White card stock and then scored a border around it. I stamped the sentiment underneath the image panel in Real Red, and called it good!

This card is also for the Lawnscaping Challenge. White space isn't something that I do often so it was fun to go outside my comfort zone and try something new!

I hope you'll come by the 'Tis The Season blog and play along with us!





Stamps: Happy Trails (Lawn Fawn), Winter in the Park (Lawn Fawn)
Paper: Whisper White, Snow Day collection (Lawn Fawn)
Ink: Real Red, Garden Green, Smoky Slate, Sahara Sand, Coastal Cabana Blendabilities
Accessories: Cuttlebug, Swiss Dots EF, Forest Border Die (Lawn Fawn), dimensionals