Thoughts of You Freshly Made

It's a great day for stamping here in southcentral Alaska. We have had colder weather move back in and there are clouds a plenty. They are saying there is even a small possibility of snow this weekend, which is just fine with me(I live in Alaska FOR the cold and snow!). However my husband is grumbling because a large section of ice has disappeared on the lake across the street and he is ready to go fishing. Phooey on him  LOL

I made myself a big cup of hot chocolate, opened my blinds wide and sat down to to play with this weeks sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches. As soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to use the Apothecary Set, which was in the Occasion Mini. I just love the different images in this set!

This card is actually going to be a Mothers Day card for my step mom. She loves the color red and so I wanted that to be the dominant color of this card. I used Island Indigo as an accent color and sponged my edges with it, except for the main image panel and the card itself, which were both sponged with Riding Hood Red.

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Apothecary Art, Loving Thoughts

Paper: Riding Hood Red, Island Indigo, Whisper White, Twitterpated DSP

Ink: Black StazOn, Riding Hood Red, Pear Pizzazz, Island Indigo

Accessories: Framelits Labels, Big Shot, Square Lattice EF, Pearls, blender pen, sponge, dimensionals

Daffodil and Olive for Paper Players

This week over at The Paper Players they have a Tic-Tac-Toe challenge.....there is a free space in the middle(like Bingo) and then the rest of the spaces have different elements you can choose to use for your project. I chose to go straight down the middle and therefore the elements were : Yellow and Green, Dry or Wet Emboss and the free space. For the free space I decided to use ribbon.

It's hard to see but on the Old Olive strip going across the middle I dry embossed with with the CB Swiss Dots folder. I then added the ribbon across the top of the Old Olive strip. When I was done I thought the card needed something more so I added the pearls in the corners of the card. I think I'm going to make this card again, except I'll use red instead of yellow, since its my step moms favorite color!

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Apothecary Art, Loving Thoughts

Paper: Old Olive, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White, Attic Boutique DSP

Ink: Black StazOn, Old Olive, Daffodil Delight

Accessories: Framelits Labels, Big Shot, CB Swiss Dots EF, Daffodil Delight Ribbon, Pearls, sponge, dimensionals

Merry Monday x3

My schedule is so screwed up lately and I haven't had time to play along with Merry Monday so today I am posting 3 cards! I did this weeks challenge, plus I went back and did the 2 challenges before that so I could try and catch up some. I absolutely adore Christmas cards, I make more of them than any other type of card so I cannot stand it when I feel like I am missing out on Christmas challenges!

I'll start with this weeks sketch and work backwards:

As soon as I saw this weeks sketch I knew I wanted to use Scenic Season. I cant even put into words how much I love this set. SU is retiring it so its only available for a few more weeks but I can tell you, I will be using this set for many years to come.! I also used some DSP that is set to retire, Letters To Santa. I added Dazzling Details to the trees and its hard to see, I couldn't get a good pic of it, but the trees sparkle beautifully in the right light.

 For last weeks challenge I pulled out Deer Friends. Such a cute set but I haven't really used it much. The circles in this sketch were a perfect way to highlight the images from this set. Its hard to see but I used the background stamp Flannel Plaid on the Cherry Cobbler background card stock. Retired DSP Jolly Holiday completed the look.

 This sketch made me pause a bit, because adding touches to the corner like this isn't something I normally do and I always seem to have a hard time figuring out what looks good. I decided to use the set A Cardinal Christmas. I specifically bought this one back in 2008 with my Grandma in mind but she passed away June of 2008 and never got to see a card from me with this image
:( In her honor all the cards I sent to family that Christmas were made with this set. It's another stamp set that I will use for many, many years to come! As you can see I used Jolly Holiday DSP on this one also and cut out the holly branches to frame the main image, plus used Xmas Red Stickles to make sure the berries popped out.

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Card 1:

Stamps:A Scenic Season, sentiment from Beautiful Season

Paper: Early Espresso, Naturals White, Letters to Santa DSP

Ink: Old Olive, Early Espresso, Cherry Cobbler

Accessories: Framelits Labels, Big Shot, Swiss Dots EF, Mistletoe Ribbon, sponge, dimensionals

Card 2:

Stamps: Deer Friends, Flannel Plaid

Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive, Very Vanilla, Jolly Holiday DSP

Ink: Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso

Accessories: 1 1/4" circle punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, Old Olive ribbon, Dazzling Details

Card 3:

Stamps: A Cardinal Christmas

Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive, Very Vanilla, Jolly Holiday DSP

Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Basic Black, Old Olive, Crumb Cake, Black StazOn

Accessories: Xmas Red Stickles, blender pen, dimenionals

Graduation with Friday Mashup

This week we have a great challenge for the Friday Mashup, brought to us by Kim! This is perfect timing for me because my oldest graduates from high school May 15th! I cant believe it, it seems like just yesterday that we were bringing him home from the hospital and now we are gearing up to watch him walk across that stage and accept his diploma. He has some special needs so there has been a lot of blood, sweat and tears over the years but we are so proud of him for everything he has accomplished!

So whats the challenge? Well, Kim wants us to make a graduation themed card, a project that uses text or definition stamps and/or paper, or mash it up and do both!

I really tried hard to mashup the challenge but I didn't have any paper with text on it and even though I am sure I probably have some, I couldn't find any text or definition stamps to go with what I was doing. I ended up cutting the '2012' out with my Cricut and used Teeny Tiny Wishes for the sentiment. The card was made using the colors for my sons school, as this card will be going to him!

Make sure you head over to The Friday Mashup blog to see all the great projects from the rest of the design team and then play along with us, we want to see how YOU interpret the challenge!

1. Make a project for "Graduation".
2. Or Make a project using " Text or Definition Stamps and/or Paper".
3. Or "Mash it Up" and create a " Graduation project with Text or Definition stamps/papers".

Our soon-to-be graduate, Alexander!

Supplies Used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Teeny Tiny Wishes

Paper: Garden Green, Basic Black, Naturals White

Ink: Black StazOn, Garden Green

Accessories: Cricut, George and Basic Shapes Cartridge, Modern Label Punch, Basic Black Brads, Big Shot, Square Lattic Embossing Folder, sponge, dimensionals

The Nicest Things for Freshly Made

Time flies when you are having fun.....today is my last challenge as guest designer for the month of April over at Freshly Made Sketches. I'd like to give a big "THANK YOU" to Lesley and the rest of the team for having me this month. To be able to create with such talented women is truly amazing so again,  thank you for a wonderful 4 weeks of fun!!

Today's sketch is brought to us by Linda and I decided to showcase one of my favorite sets, The Nicest Things, which will be retiring here shortly. It's a good thing I keep all of my sets because these sweet little girls just make me smile!

I used pearls as my accent along the circle and to tie it all together I also added some tiny little pearls on 2 of the flowers in the image. I colored the images with colors drawn right from the DSP.

Make sure you head over to Freshly Made Sketches to check out all the great inspiration from the design team and then be sure to link up your own project for this great sketch!

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: The Nicest Things, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Paper: Pool Party, Poppy Parade, Whisper White, Attic Boutique DSP

Ink: Black StazOn, Daffodil Delight, Poppy Parade, Pool Party, Wisteria Wonder, Early Espresso, Pear Pizzazz, Crumb Cake

Accessories: Pearls, Coluzzle, Modern Label Punch, sponge, dimensionals

Friendship is Precious

Whew! It's that time of year where I am going a million miles an hour...my oldest graduates high school in 2 weeks, my daughter just had prom and is on the soccer team and my 13 y/o, well, he is 13, need I say more? LOL I haven't been able to play along with The Paper Players for a few weeks so I made sure to make some time today!

This weeks challenge is a great sketch from Nance, I really love it! I was finishing up some cards for the fundraiser I did for my daughters soccer team and I was having some serious stampers block.....Nance's sketch got me moving in the right direction again!

Make sure you head over to The Paper Players blog to check out the great inspiration from the design team and then play along!

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Precious Butterflies

Paper: Sahara Sand, Rose Red, Whisper White, Thoroughly Modern DSP

Ink: Rose Red, Crumb Cake

Accessories: Scallop Edge Border Punch, Decorative Label Punch, Pearls, sponge, dimensionals

Sketchy Tag and Ghosts for Friday Mashup

Can I just say how happy I am that it's Friday? This week has been a busy and crazy one and it's not quite over yet....my daughter has prom Saturday so we have some last minute stuff to do to make sure she has everything exactly the way she wants. it Can I just say that my 2 boys are SO much easier to get ready for things? LOL

This week for The Friday Mashup Rita brings us a great sketch and also asks us to try the ghosting technique (which you can find here), also known as Versamark resist. I had never tried this technique before and so of course, I mashed up the challenge!

I used The Open Sea set for this card. The background was stamped with Versamark on Glossy White cardstock and then I sponged Not Quite Navy over it. I used a paper towel to rub the ink off and I did it while the Versamark was still a bit wet, as I wanted a smeared look in spots, to make it look like something that was old and had faded over time. Then I stamped the ship in Early Espresso over the background.

Make sure you head over to the Friday Mashup blog to check out all the great cards from the design team and then play along with us, we want to see how YOU interpret the challenge!

1. Make a project using the " Sketch ".
2. Or Make a project using the " Ghosting (aka VersaMark Resist) Technique".
3. Or "Mash it Up" and create a project using the " Sketch & the Ghosting Technique".

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: The Open Sea, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso, Naturals White, Glossy White

Ink: Not Quite Navy, Early Espresso, Versamark

Accessories: Early Espresso ribbon, Modern Label punch, retired tag shapes from SU, dimensionals, sponge