Catching Snow

Jingle Belles current challenge is to use Santa on our projects. I immediately thought of this fun set from Avery Elle called Oh What Fun, with Santa looking towards the sky to catch snowflakes. I actually started this card last week but life has gotten in the way and I wasn't able to finish my set of 5 until tonight!

I had this paper in my stash and I liked the presents for the bottom half, because that's what Santa does, bring presents, and then the top portion was the reverse side and it was perfect as snow falling from the night sky.

Stamps: Oh What Fun (Avery Elle)

Paper: Basic Black (SU), Neenah Solar White, S.E.I. 

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black

Copics: R05, R27, R46

N3, N4

C1

W0, W1

YR24

R01, R81

Accessories: Cuttlebug, MFT Zig Zag Stitch Circles, Dimensionals

Boo! for Sunday Stamps

Ooops, I'm a bit late with my Sunday Stamps post! My best friend is leaving Alaska to move back to FL due to her husbands job so we spent Saturday having a girls day exploring the local mountains and on Sunday my entire family was at her house, packing and cleaning. By the time we got home Sunday I was ready to collapse! 

We have a square sketch to play with this week and I decided to go with a Halloween theme. This image is from Mo's Digital Pencil and was recently half off. I don't make a lot of Halloween cards but I couldn't pass this fun little witch up!

My image is colored with copics and my paper is retired SU. I'm trying to use my stash before buying more paper. So far I'm doing pretty good with that, but we'll see how long it lasts :)

Make sure you head on over to the Sunday Stamps blog to see what the rest of the DT created and then play along with us!

Stamps: Little With Henriette (Mo's Digital Pencil)

Paper: Kiwi Kiss (SU retired), Neenah Solar White, Ghostly Greetings DSP (SU retired)

Ink: Printer Ink, Kiwi Kiss (SU retired), Pumpkin Pie (SU), Perfect Plum (SU), Memento Tuxedo Black

Copics: YR04, YR07, YR09, YR18

V06, V17, V25

YR24, E35, E99, YR14

E55, E57, E59

R000, R01

Y18, T1

W0, N2, N3, N4

Glad We're Friends

It's time for a new Anything Goes challenge over at the Little Miss Muffet Stamps blog, plus there are some new images in the shop today! For my card today I'm using one of the new images, Polka Dot Pals Gada.

This is such a sweet image of a little girl creating a chain of flowers, perfect for a summer birthday or just to say hi. I went with one of my favorite color schemes, yellow and blue. Definitely good summer colors! I decided to cut the image out and just place it against a background, and I really like this yellow patterned paper I had in my stash. It was perfect to help highlight this image!

Make sure you head on over to the LMMS blog to see what the rest of the DT created and then play along with us!

Let It Be

When I discovered Power Poppy earlier this year this free digital image instantly caught my eye. My husband is a HUGE Beatles/Paul McCartney fan, and this song happens to be one of my favorite Beatles song. Not to mention I love the leaves surrounding the letters. Perfect for a fall card! For the Power Poppy Power and Spark Challenge, CASE a Bloom Brigade member, I decided to CASE Cindy Lawrence's awesome card with this image.

Here in my part of Alaska we don't get a lot of vibrant fall colors, we mainly see yellow with some orange mixed in. I grew up in New England though and wow, the fall colors there will just blow you away. As I was coloring this image I thought about the street my grandparents lived on and how in the fall you could stand at the end of their driveway, look down the street and just see endless color. I'll carry the beautiful images of autumn back east in my mind forever, there is nothing like it.

I went with yellow, orange, red and green for my leaves, much like Cindy did (other than red). Cindy embossed her card base but I chose to use some patterned paper instead, pulling from the orange of the leaves. I then added a strip of patterned paper down the front like she did, using a design with nice bright colors to contrast against the orange background. I've never been great at coloring around images for a shading effect but I really liked how it looked on Cindy's card so I just went for it on mine. It didn't come out looking too bad! I did leave my letters white, while Cindy covered hers in glitter. Much to my daughters dismay I am not much of a glitter person.

Stamps: Let It Be (Power Poppy)

Paper: Tangerine Tango (SU), Neenah Solar White, Chocolate Chip (SU), International Bazaar (SU retired)

Ink: Printer Ink

Copics: YR04, YR18

R05, R17

Y08, Y19

YG63, G94

B0000, B000

Accessories: Dimensionals

My final test for this card was showing the hubby. I figured he would be picky about it but he loved the bright colors and how all the different colors on the card pop. It was nice to see that he really liked it!

Thanks for stopping by!

Santa Snowglobe

Once again I'm combining a Power Poppy challenge with a Jingle Belles one, as they both fit together perfectly!

The Power Poppy challenge is to CASE the card of a Bloom Brigade team member, and for Jingle Belles they want to see projects with Santa on them. I've admired this card by Allison Cope for a while so it was a no brainer on how to combine the 2 challenges!

Allison went with white on white with a touch of color but I'm not that brave LOL Instead of using washi tape in the corners I just did a full back panel of patterned paper, although I did keep the theme of stripes. Allison used Texture Paste to create a background but I don't own any of that so I went with some embossing on white card stock. The snowglobe is from a Power Poppy digital stamp set called Snowglobe Greetings. I love snowglobes and I love Santa so it's a perfect stamp for me! I colored the image with copics and then fussy cut it out.

I got stuck on the sentiment for a while...I didn't want anything too cute because the snowglobe gives off an old fashioned feel but all the sentiments catching my eye were too big to use. I finally settled on a retired SU one that I felt worked well with the image. Like Allison I heat embossed it on red card stock and then cut it to make a banner coming out from the snowglobe. A lot of the same ideas on my card but still a tad different :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: Snowglobe Greetings (Power Poppy), Endless Wishes (SU retired)

Paper: Thick Whisper White (SU), Neenah Solar White, Cherry Cobbler (SU),  S.E.I Kris Kringle

Ink: Versamark

Copics: G07, G09, G19

E31, E34, E35

R27, R46

R39, R59

E25, E27, E29

R01, T1

C1, C3

N2, N4

E33, Y08, TR24, B34

BG0000, B0000

Accessories: Cuttlebug, MFT Blueprints 15 and 20, SU TIEF Softly Falling

Better With Friends

It's time for Inspiration Week over at the Little Miss Muffet Stamps blog! This week I decided to go with a friendship card...our best friends are moving back to FL due to work and my husband and I are so bummed. This card is to let them know how much they bring to our lives and how much we'll miss them!

I used Polka Dot Pals Valerie for my card along with last weeks CAS(e) this Sketch layout. I thought that the way she is sitting was perfect to use for this sketch!

Make sure and head on over to the LMMS blog to play along with our Anything Goes Challenge, there is still time to join in the fun!

Stamps: PDP Valerie (LMMS), Tickled Pink (MFT- sentiment)

Paper: Wild Wasabi (SU), Neenah Solar White, Pink Paislee Take Me Away PP

Ink: Real Red (SU), Printer Ink

Copics: Y04

B91, B93, B95

E23, E25, E27

E50, E51, E53

Accessories: Dimensionals

Power Poppy Hues to Use

Today is an exciting day! I am a guest over at the Power Poppy blog on the Hues to Use segment! I am so excited to be able to take part in this great challenge and want to thank the fabulous Julie Koerber for having me! (boy I love those exclamation marks LOL)

Here are the colors for this week....

The pink in this weeks Hues to Use really pops so I wanted to make sure the image I used highlighted that color. The digital set Bees in Foxglove was a great way to have the pink take center stage. Fun fact.... foxglove doesn't normally survive in my part of Alaska because of the winters, but it is quite prevalent down in SE Alaska.

After printing out my image I die cut it out with a rectangle panel and I used my Copics R81, R83 and R85 to color in the foxglove blooms. The leaves and stems were colored with Copics YG03 and YG25. I threw in a bit of Y04 to color the bees visiting the foxglove.

To bring in that light sandy color I used the same die I cut the image panel with to cut a piece of sandy colored patterned paper. I also used the die to cut a piece of pink patterned paper and set both of those at angles behind the main image panel. The card base is green embossed with a large polka dot folder, carrying on the polka dot theme of the patterned paper.

To finish off the card I used the sentiment from the Bees in Foxglove set, changing the color of the text to green. I cut the sentiment panel to the size I wanted and then cut the corners with a round corner punch and adhered it to the front of the card.

Make sure you head on over to the Power Poppy blog to play along with Hues to Use! If you play along YOU could be one of the next guests on the blog! Let's see what you can do with these colors :)

Thank you again to Julie and Power Poppy for having me as a guest this week!

Let Freedom Ring

This week at Sunday Stamps we have a color challenge, and when I first saw the colors I immediately thought of a patriotic card. With the recent loss of 15 Marines and a Navy Corpsman in a plane crash and a local solider from Wasilla killed in Afghanistan my heart is especially full of gratitude for our service members and their families. My dad was a Marine and my husband is a retired FMF Navy Corpsman  and I'm very lucky that they always came home safe. Sadly not all military families are that lucky and we must not forget why we have the freedoms we do.

The sentiment is a free one offered from Power Poppy stamps, you can find it HERE. I uploaded it to Word and changed the color to blue to go along with the scheme of my card. After using the circle die cut I used dimensionals to adhere it to the card.

My layout is from the current CAS(e) this Sketch challenge, it was perfect for what I had in my mind for my card.  After seeing some of the cards by their DT I figured it was ok to put the circle on the card like I did.

Make sure you head on over to the Sunday Stamps blog to see what the rest of the DT created and then play along with us!

Stamps: digital sentiment from Power Poppy

Paper: Night of Navy (SU), Neenah Solar White, Authentique Seafarer and Seafarer Two, Pebbles America the Beautiful

Ink: Printer Ink, Night of Navy (SU)

Accessories: Cuttlebug, MFT Zig Zag Stitch Circles, Dimensionals

A Blue Christmas

My favorite challenge blogs both have great challenges this week.....Power Poppy has a blue color scheme for the Hues to Use Challenge and Jingle Belles has a photo inspiration that is also filled with blue. Blue is my favorite color (well, tied with green!) and so I was very excited to try and figure out a card to combine these 2 great challenges.

Power Poppy has a wonderful digital image called Wreaths: Felt Leaves and Fruits  (and today is the last day to get their digital images 20% off, go check out the Power Poppy website!) so I decided to make that image the focus of the various blues wanted by Hues to Use. If you look at the Jingle Belles inspiration photo you can also see the varying degrees of blue used, from the ornament on the side table to the ribbon on the mantel to the snowflakes hanging from the mantel.

I colored the felt leaves in the sky shade of blue and then used the cornflower shade on the pom pom fruits and the midnight blue for the berries. I continued the darker blue color into my card base layers. The sentiment in the middle of the wreath is from another Power Poppy digital stamp set called Glittering Glass Santa. I resized it to fit in the middle and then changed the color of the stamp from black to blue.

For the Jingle Belles inspiration I embossed the banner with a snowflake pattern, after the snowflakes hanging from the fireplace. The white cascading down on the patterned paper was inspired by the white dots going down the wall in the picture, and the stark white of the image panel against the blue can also be seen on the inspiration photo with all the white elements contrasting against the blue wall.

Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: Wreaths: Felt Leaves and Fruits (Power Poppy), Glittering Glass Santa (Power Poppy- sentiment)

Paper: Night of Navy (SU), Neenah Solar White, Bo Bunny Dear Santa PP

Ink: Printer Ink

Copics: B41, B52

B63, B66

B97

Accessories: Cuttlebug, MFT Zig Zag Stitch Circles, Dimensionals, SU Banner Framelits (retired), SU TIEF Snow Burst (retired)

An Owl Christmas

This month for my Kitty Bee Design Team spotlight I'm continuing the Christmas in July theme with this fun image called Kawaii Santa Owl. He is definitely a jolly fellow!

I colored the image with copics and then used my Scan N Cut to cut out the image. I used a retired SU background stamp to create the chevron background, added a strip of chevron DSP and then popped up Santa Owl. Lastly I added the sentiment.

You can find this fun image and more at the Kitty Bee Design Shop HERE.

Don't forget to head over to the Kitty Bee Designs Aloha Friday Challenge and check out the latest challenge!

Stamps: Kawaii Santa Owl (Kitty Bee Designs), Toasty Greetings (MFT-sentiment), Positively Chevron (SU retired)

Paper: Baked Brown Sugar (SU retired), Neenah Solar White, Season of Style DSP (SU retired)

Ink: Printer Ink, Chocolate Chip

Copics: E42, E43

R29, R46

E33, E35

G07, R5

Accessories: Scan N Cut, Dimensonals, Clear Wink of Stella

Dashing By for LMMS

It's time for a new challenge over at the Little Miss Muffet Stamps blog and I'm continuing my Christmas in July theme! This week I'm using Polka Dot Pals Issie. How cute is she? One of my favorite things to do with my kids when they were small was to take them sledding. We'd have a bunch of fun in the snow and then go home and have nice bug cups of hot chocolate!

I pulled the colors from the patterned paper I used, which was some I've had in my stash for a while. I love darker colors so it was the perfect it for me :) 

Make sure you head on over to the LMMS blog to see what the rest of the DT created and then play along in our Anything Goes challenge!

Stamps: Polka Dot Pals Issie (LMMS), Dashing By (MFT- sentiment)

Paper: Night of Navy (SU), Neenah Solar White, Carta Bella All Bundled Up

Ink: Printer Ink, Cherry Cobbler (SU)

Copics: YR00, YR02

E23, E25, E27

E93, E97

R39

E49, N7

N2, N3

C1

Accessories: Scan N Cut, Cuttlebug, MFT Blueprints 27, Dimensionals

Happy Daisies for Power Poppy

Hello from sunny southcentral Alaska! It's in the mid- 70's today and I'm hiding in my craft room, working on cards. I think I may have to jump in our pool later though. Anything over 70 is way too hot for this girl!

I'm playing along with the current Power Poppy Power and Spark challenge again and my card colors are perfect for my weather today, bright and cheery! This time I am CASEing a lovely card by Bloom Brigade Member Christine Okken. Her card instantly caught my eye with its bold colors and fun design.

I really love how Christine took the digital image and enlarged it for her background layer and changed the color of the image to go along with the main image. I decided to do the same thing for my card and used green for the color of my background image. Instead of using 2 additional layers I chose to just use one, the image panel. I used yellows for my gerbera daisies, it's just such a happy color to me!

For the 2 strips across the card I decided to use the same card stock and left off embellishments. My sentiment also comes from the Gerbera Daisies set and I used a punch to cut the sentiment out, first changing the color of the sentiment from black to green.

Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: Gerbera Daisies (Power Poppy)

Paper: Crushed Curry (SU), Neenah Solar White, Crushed Curry DSP (SU retired)

Ink: Printer Ink

Copics: Y08, Y19

YG03, YG25

YG95, YG99

Accessories: Cuttlebug, MFT Blueprints 15, SU Labels Framelits (retired), SU Decorative Label Punch (retired), Dimensionals

Santa CASE for Power Poppy

Over at the Power Poppy blog the challenge this month is to CASE a card by a Bloom Brigade member. For those who aren't familiar with the term, CASE stands for Copy And Share Everything. You create a project based off of someone else's project. Most of the time this is a good thing!

There are so many gorgeous cards by the team members to choose from and I know I'll be submitting to the challenge again but for now I started with this card by Julie Koerber. I've admired this card for a while and it's the first one I thought of when I saw the challenge. It's also perfect for the Christmas kick I'm on right now...who else is watching the Christmas movies on Hallmark this week? :)

For my card I changed the colors to darker colors, since I'm pretty traditional when it comes to Christmas. I've hoarded this DSP from SU for many years so it was perfect to break out for this card. 

I kept the basic layout and just changed the border along the middle panel to a scalloped one. The oval image panel seemed too stark to me against all the papers so I used a sponge to put Old Olive around the edges. The camera didn't pick it up but I added some Wink of Stella to the Santa ornament and used a white gel pen to add some snow to the branch and the tree in Santa's arms.

Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: Glittering Santa (Power Poppy)

Paper: Chocolate Chip (SU), Baja Breeze (SU retired), Neenah Solar White, Holiday Treasures DSP (SU retired)

Ink: Printer Ink

Copics: YG95, YG99

B000, B01

R27, RV52, R01

G46

N2, C3, W1

Accessories: Big Shot, SU Oval Framelits, MFT Blueprints 15 and 23, Ribbon, White Gel Pen, Wink of Stella Clear, Dimensionals

Flowers For Her

It's time for mid week inspiration over at the Aloha Friday Challenge and this week the challenge is all about girly cards. I'm not much of a girly girl so I decided to go with something that makes me, and most girls, smile....flowers!

Fred, She Said Designs is one of the sponsors for this challenge and I used their fun set Happy Flowers. It's a very versatile set and you can create a beautiful garden with these images! I chose to combine an image of a pot containing 3 flowers and then 2 images with one flower in a pot. I colored them to match the card stock I was using. You can find this digital set HERE.

My sketch came from the current Freshly Made Sketches layout.

Make sure to head on over to the Aloha Friday Challenge blog to join in the girl fun, we'd love to see what you come up with!

Stamps: Happy Flowers (Fred, She Said Designs), Sweet Forest Friends (MFT- sentiment)

Paper: Coastal Cabana (SU retired), Real Red (SU), Neenah Solar White, Fresh Prints DSP (SU retired)

Ink: Real Red (SU)

Copics: R29, R46

BG11

YG63, G94

E43, E44

W1

Accessories: Big Shot, MFT Zig Zag Stitch Circles, MFT Blueprints 27 , Sequins, Dimensionals

Christmas in July for LMMS

It's Inspiration Week over at the Little Miss Muffet Stamps blog and since Christmas is my favorite holiday and Christmas in July is always fun I'm doing a Christmas card this week! I'm using Polka Dot Pals Noeleen, I just love this little ice skater! In Wasilla the city puts up lights for a skating rink on Wasilla Lake once the right ice thickness level has been reached and I always enjoy watching the families out there skating. It's what winter and Christmas are all about!

Don't forget to play along with the LMMS Anything Goes Challenge, it's still open!

Stamps: PDP Noeleen (LMMS), Wonderland (SU retired)

Paper: Real Red (SU), Neenah Solar White, S.E.I.

Ink: Real Red (SU)

Copics: R29, W4

BG11

B50, B51, B53

E31, E34, E35

Accessories: Big Shot, MFT Blueprints 15 and 20, Dimensionals

Red, White and Blue

Over at the Power Poppy blog there is a new Hues to Use challenge and with it being the week of the 4th of July here in the states the colors are quite fitting...red, white and blue. I decided to use the Sweet Pea Show digital stamp. My sweet peas haven't bloomed yet but when they do they won't be as vibrant as the ones on my card! I used a nice and rich red and blue copics to color my flowers and I added some sequins to give the card a little extra bling. I was going to add a ribbon but didn't like the way it looked.

Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: Sweet Pea Show (Power Poppy)

Paper: Cherry Cobbler (SU), Neenah Solar White

Ink: Printer Ink

Copics: B24, B26, B28

R46, R59

G24, G99

C1

W0, W1, W4

Accessories: Big Shot, MFT Blueprints 15, Sequins

Tall and Skinny for Sunday Stamps

It's time for a new challenge over at Sunday Stamps and this week Heidi is bringing us a sketch for something we haven't done in a while, if ever, at Sunday Stamps...a tall and skinny card. I admit this one stumped me a bit but apparently I work best under pressure because I totally spaced the challenge coming up and had less than 24 hours to get my card done, ooops! Between remodeling some rooms in my house, chasing 2 puppies and my daughter moving to the Lower 48 my brain is officially fried LOL That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it :)

I cut my card stock so my card base is 3.5" x 5.5". I then stamped the MFT Background stamp Bundles of Blossoms on some white card stock and then colored it in. After I was done coloring the image I outlined the card stock with a black sharpie and then adhered it to my card base. The sentiment was stamped on white card stock, backed with black card stock and then adhered to my card base. These type of cards would be perfect for as a bookmark or as a card to put in with a gift bag!

Make sure and head over to the Sunday Stamps blog to see what the rest of the DT created and then play along with us! We'd love to see how you interpret the sketch!

Stamps: MFT Bundles of Blossoms, MFT Tickled Pink

Paper: Basic Black (SU), Neenah Solar White

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black

Copics: G24, YG13, YG63

R24, R32

RV17, RV25

Y18, Y35

YR16

V04, V17

BV02, BV08

B04

BG15