Butterfly Thanks

I recently learned about the Stampin' Celebration Challenge blog from my friend Holly and I'm glad I checked in on it tonight because their sketch challenge closes in a day. For some reason I thought I had more time, ooops! The husband and 2 of our boys went out fishing for king salmon tonight so I put on some music and sat down to craft.

The circle in the sketch was throwing me off and so I grabbed some scratch paper and just started playing around with various sketch sets. I wanted to do something patriotic but wasn't having much luck with the sets I was grabbing. Finally I grabbed Gorgeous Grunge, stamped  the lined stamp in Real Red and then the smaller splatter stamp in Night of Navy. I used the Embosslits Beautiful Wings to cut out butterflies in Real Red, Night of Navy and Whisper White and placed them randomly on the circle. The sentiment is from Happy Watercolor and I added one Whisper White butterfly above it to finish the card off. The background was scored with the Simply Scored Tool to get some texture, the plain card stock just wasn't working for me.

I'm glad I was able to get a card done in time! Head over to the Stampin' Celebration blog and check them out!

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Gorgeous Grunge, Happy Watercolor(sentiment)

Paper: Real Red, Night of Navy, Whisper White

Ink: Real Red, Night of Navy

Accessories: Big Shot, Circles Collection, Embosslits Beautiful Wings, Paper Piercer, Simply Scored Tool

Wear Red for Freshly Made Sketches

Many know that Fridays are "Wear Red Friday's", where you wear red in order to support our troops that are abroad, until they all come home. As a veteran myself it's important to me to support our service members and the new SU set For Your Country is a perfect way to do that. I adore this set! I had time to stamp today so I combined the "Wear Red Friday" with the current Freshly Made Sketches challenge in order to create a patriotic card.

I used retired DSP from Polka Dot Parade(I'm so glad I bought more of it before it retired) and paired it with Whisper White and Night of Navy card stock for a simple card. I think the images of this set and the sentiment speak for themselves. The sentiment is one of my favorites, especially since JFK was also a Navy veteran (Go Navy!). I popped the sentiment panel up with dimensionals just to make it pop even more.

Thanks for stopping by, and remember our troops!

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: For Your Country

Paper: Real Red, Night of Navy, Whisper White, Polka Dot Parade DSP (retired)

Ink: Night of Navy

Accessories: Round Corner Punch, dimensionals

Polar Express Christmas

The minute I saw the current challenge at Jingle Belles I was so excited, as I am a big fan of Christmas books and movies! They want us to create a card based on a Christmas book or for those who aren't big on reading, use a TV show or movie.

The Polar Express is the first thing that popped into my head when I saw the prompt. I absolutely adore the book and also own the movie. My kids are 20, 18 and 15 but every year we sit down on the couch on Christmas Eve and we read The Polar Express(along with 'Twas The Night Before Christmas). We each take turns reading a page and its just a wonderful tradition to have every year. I love that even at their ages my kids get excited and ask me and their dad "can we read the book yet? Is it time for the books?". Hopefully someday they'll be reading the book with their own children!

Putting a card together to represent the book was the hardest part for me and its taken several days for me to even be remotely happy with what I came up with. I originally planned on a card that had a train sitting in front of houses with snow falling and well, when I started to make that card it looked like crap and I got disgusted with myself and threw it away. Then I tried just a train image surrounded by snow and again, hated how it was coming out so that went in the trash also.

After talking with my 15 year old son I decided to use a bell. We are big believers in Santa in this house (you don't get presents if you don't believe in Santa!) and the bell is such a perfect representation of the magic that one carries in their heart for Christmas. I cut out the bell with my Cricut and then proceeded to get crafters block again. I tried putting the bell with some designer paper...didn't like it. I tried putting it with the word "believe"......didn't like it. I finally embossed another strip of Night of Navy, embossed it with the retired SU folder Snow Burst and made that my top layer. I then used the SU MDS program to print out the last lines of the book " The bell still rings for me, as it does for all who truly believe". I put that across the bottom of the card and then used some ribbon to divide the panels. I then took the bell and popped it up with dimensionals on the top half of the card. I called my son in to see what he thought and he approved so that's it, card done! I haven't been this frustrated with an idea for a card in a long time!

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: More Merry Messages(inside sentiment, not shown)

Paper: Night of Navy, Whisper White, Silver Glimmer Paper

Ink: Black

Accessories: Cricut, Joys of the Season cartridge, Night of Navy Ribbon, Silver Ribbon, dimensionals, sponge

Hello Sailor for Friday Mashup

This week at The Friday Mashup Holly is our hostess and she wants to create a project that says hello, and to use sequins. This week I did not mash it up as I do not own a single sequin so my card is all about the hello.

I grabbed the set Sea Street during the preorder but this is the first time I've inked it up. Isn't the octopus just adorable? To get my hello in I used an image from the set Hello, Sailor, which was in the Occasions catalog. That circle isn't part of the sketch but its the only place I liked the sentiment so hopefully its ok! Both circles are popped up with dimensionals. I also embossed the background with the Decorative Dots EF to make it look like bubbles.

My sketch inspiration came from the The Paper Players, I'm sneaking in at the very last second for their challenge!

Come by The Friday Mashup to see what the rest of the DT came up with and play along with us!

Create a project using "Sequins".

Create  a "Hello or Hi project".

or Mash it Up! and create a "Hello project with Sequins".

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Sea Street, Hello, Sailor(retired)

Paper: Night of Navy, Real Red, Whisper White, Maritime DSP

Ink: Real Red, Night of Navy, Coastal Cabana

Accessories: Big Shot, Decorative Dots EF, Circles Collection, Banners Framelits, dimensionals

 

In the Bubble for Friday Mashup

This week at The Friday Mashup Cindy has a super fun challenge....she wants us to create a project using black, white/ivory and one other color of your choice. To add to the fun throw some word bubbles in there too!

As soon as I saw the sketch at Clean and Simple Stamping I smiled and was like, yes!! It couldn't have come at a better time. I was trying to figure out what to do for my card and this sketch made it all so simple.

I used the Arrows TIEF to emboss a strip of Whisper White and then I die cut the word bubbles in Basic Black and used a white gel pen to create the border. I stamped one of the bubbles from Just Sayin' in Daffodil Delight and used the coordinting die to cut it out. Following the sketch I added the bubbles across the card, with the Daffodil Delight bubble popped up with dimensionals. I don't know what it is about this card but it just makes me smile!

Make sure you head over to The Friday Mashup to see what the rest of the DT came up with, and also swing by Clean and Simple Stamping and give the sketch a try, its a fun one!

Create a project using the colors" Black , White/Ivory and one other color of your choice".

Create a project using a "Word Bubble".

or Mash it Up! and create a "Black & White project with a Word Bubble on it".

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Just Sayin'

Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black

Ink: Daffodil Delight

Accessories: Big Shot, Word Bubbles Framelits, Arrows TIEF, White Gel Pen

Going In Circles for 'Tis The Season

It's time for another 'Tis The Season challenge and this week we have a sketch challenge!

I decided to go for a rustic card and used the deer from the Remembering Christmas set, along with the Hardwood stamp and some retired DSP. It took me a little bit to figure out exactly what I wanted to do with the circle portion of the sketch but I finally decided to cut out a circle using the Starburst Framelits. I stamped the deer image on Whisper White in Sahara Sand and fussy cut it out, popping it up with dimensionals above the banner. The banner is just a smaller version of the main card panel....the Hardwood stamp stamped in Sahara Sand on Sahara Sand card stock. I then stamped the sentiment in Ruby Red(retired) on Whisper White. To finish it off I added some Sahara Sand candy dots on the circle cut out of the DSP.

Head on over to the 'Tis The Season blog and see what the rest of the DT did with the sketch, and then play along with us!

 

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Remembering Christmas(retired), Hardwood

Paper: Sahara Sand, Whisper White, Holiday Lounge DSP(retired)

Ink: Sahara Sand, Ruby Red(retired)

Accessories: Big Shot, Starburst Framelits, Sahara Sand Candy Dots, dimensionals

 

Say Cheese for Sunday Stamps!

I love photography and I was excited to see SU come out with some photography themed sets, such as Say Cheese and the wood stamp Snapshot. I decided to combine these 2 today to play along with the sketch over at Sunday Stamps.
I kept the colors pretty muted, sticking mainly with a pop of Real Red and Basic Gray as the main color. The banners were cut from I Am Me DSP (retired).  The Arrows TIEF seems to be my new favorite EF, I've been using it a lot lately, probably since my other favorite EF Square Lattice was retired, boo!

The banner with the sentiment is from the Say Cheese set and I stamped it and then cut it out and popped it up with dimensionals above the banners.

Nice and simple card!

Supplies used(all supplies SU unless otherwise noted):

Stamps: Snapshot, Say Cheese

Paper: Real Red, Basic Gray, Whisper White, I Am Me DSP(retired)

Ink: Black StazOn, Real Red, Basic Black

Accessories: Big Shot, Arrows TIEF, dimensionals