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Because I Care

Edit:  Sorry…don't know why this didn't post early last night!

Time for another Create with Connie and Mary Thursday Challenge!  Our theme this week is a Color Challenge…Pacific Point, Bashful Blue, Daffodil Delight, Wild Wasabi and Basic Black!  Hope you play along and add your entry to InLinkz over on Create with Connie and Mary!  And, Friday is the last day to submit your samples for a chance to be a Create with Connie and Mary Design Team Member!  You can see details here!

These were fun colors and I couldn't help but think of flowers!  My hydrangeas are a gorgeous blue color, so the combination of Pacific Point and Bashful Blue works well to represent them!  Here is my card:

I started with a base of Daffodil Delight cardstock.  I layered on Bashful Blue that I ran thru the Big Shot with the Elegant Lines Impressions Folder.  I inked up the flower with my Bashful Blue and Pacific Point Stampin' Write Markers, then stamped on Watercolor paper.  I used my AquaPainter to blur the color and fill in the image.  Then…while it was still slightly damp, I reinked the head of the flower with the Pacific Point marker, and overstamped the image.  This gave the petals definition again.  I stamped Because I Case in Basic Black in the corner.

I layered the Watercolor paper on Pacific Point and then Basic Black cardstock.  I took some yummy Daffodil Delight Satin Ribbon, tied a bow, and wrapped it around and secured on the back of the Bashful Blue layer.  I added the half back Pearls to some of the areas in the Impressions Folder.  I thought it needed a little something, so added the small butterfly from the Beautiful Wings Embosslit in Daffodil Delight and some small Pearls to the body.  I popped up the butterfly with dimensionals on the front.

Make sure to check out what the rest of the Challenge Team did this week over on Create with Connie and Mary!  Their work is FABULOUS like usual!

Got Treats?

Stampin' Up!'s Got Treats? stamp set was on my very first order of the new catalog.  But…this card was the first time I used it.  It was originally made for a Create with Connie and Mary sketch challenge a few weeks ago, but when I made my Convention swap cards using the same sketch I REALLY liked it, so used that card for my Create Challenge!  (You can see it HERE!)

I picked my colors from the original Pawsitively Prints Designer Paper (still available in the Summer Mini until the end of the month!)  I used Daffodil Delight for the base of the card.  Next I layered on Pretty in Pink cardstock that I ran thru the Big Shot with the Perfect Polka Dots Impressions Folder.  I added three narrow strips of Pear Pizzazz cardstock along the left side, then a piece of the floral designer paper pattern from Pawsitively Prints I.   I rounded the corners first. 

For the focal piece, I inked up the Cupcake image from Got Treats? with my Stampin' Write Markers in Daffodil Delight, Pretty in Pink and Pear Pizzazz and stamped on Whisper White.  I punched it with the 1 3/8 Circle Punch, then layered it on Pear Pizzazz Scallop Circle.  I pierced each of the scallops.  I added a yellow Flower Brad next to the Cupcake image, then a shiny Rhinestone Jewel in the center of the brad!  Love that look!  Finally, I added a bow of Pear Pizzazz Ribbon to the front!

New Designer Paper and Ribbon Shares going on now!  Find more information HERE!

Friday is the last day to submit your application!  We are looking for FOUR Create with Connie and Mary Design Team Members for the next session of Create with Connie and Mary, featuring the Holiday Mini!  We'd love to have you apply!  If you applied last time, try again!  We had so many great applications last time it was very hard to choose!  You can find out more information over on Create with Connie and Mary!

Tropical Party

Whew…the Wedding Reception is OVER and I'm SO thankful it went well.  Other than forgetting to bring containers to put leftover food, I did a pretty good job of remembering everything I had to take to the party house!  And really, other than fruit, we didn't have a lot of extra food left over!  It was a bigger group than I anticipated!  BIG thanks to my friend, Sue, for her help with the food…always a bigger job than you can anticipate!  Everyone raved about the food, so it was a success!  Here is a picture of the happy couple with their wedding cake.

Gosh…I feel like I've been neglecting my Summer Mini stamps since the new catalog came out and now I have the Holiday Mini products in my hands, too!  Since the Summer Mini only runs thru the end of August, today I thought I'd feature Stampin' Up!'s set, Tropical Party, that is one of my favorites!  I followed Mary Jo's Monday's Lunchtime Sketch Challenge (TSSC135) to get me started.

And here is my interpretation:

I thought the words from the stamp set, Level 1 Hostess set, Afterthoughts, was pretty funny with the Coconut Drink image from Tropical Party!  I started with a base of Old Olive cardstock.  I used the umbrella pattern from Island Oasis Designer Paper and layered it on Tempting Turquoise cardstock.  I used another pattern from Island Oasis DSP for the polka dots, then layered that on Old Olive.  I tied the new Pumpkin PIe Taffeta Ribbon around to the front and tied with a knot. 

I inked the Just for You image with Rose Red, then used Tempting Turquoise Marker for the "…so you don't have to share"…words and stamped it on Whisper White.  I layered it on Old Olive.  The coconut drink, I stamped on Whisper White with Chocolate Chip Classic Ink, cut it out, then placed it on a 1 3/8 circle of Rose Red cardstock.  Fun!

New Designer Paper and Ribbon Shares going on now!  Find more information HERE!

Friday is the last day to submit your application!  We are looking for FOUR Create with Connie and Mary Design Team Members for the next session of Create with Connie and Mary, featuring the Holiday Mini!  We'd love to have you apply!  If you applied last time, try again!  We had so many great applications last time it was very hard to choose!  You can find out more information over on Create with Connie and Mary!

Stamping 411 Sketch – Aviary

Time for another Stamping 411 Sketch Challenge!  A really fun and easy sketch this week…it came together pretty quickly!  We invite you to play along and upload your creation over on Stamping 411.  And, check out what the other Design Team Operators did this week!

And here is my card using the fun Stampin' Up! stamp set, Aviary!

I started with a base card of Daffodil Delight.  Then I cut strips of Pretty in Pink, Daffodil Delight, Wild Wasabi and Marina Mist and ran them thru the Big Shot with the Square Lattice Impressions Folder.  I layered them onto Early Espresso cardstock.  I cut another strip of Early Espresso used the Dotted Scallop Ribbon Punch, then placed it along the left side. 

For the center, I stamped the Birdcage from Stampin' Up!'s Aviary stamp set in Early Espresso on Whisper White, then added the Marina Mist, Wild Wasabi and Daffodil Delight birds inked with Stampin' Write Markers.  I punched it with the Wide Oval Punch and then I punched Marina Mist cardstock with the Modern Label Punch, cut it in half, and placed it behind the Wide Oval.  I added two Rhinestone jewels to each side.  I wrapped the 1/8 Taffeta Daffodil Delight Ribbon to the back and tied a bow at the top of the birdcage.  Finally, I stamped "let's celebrate" from On Your Birthday stamp set in Early Espresso, then punched with the Small Oval Punch and placed on the front with Stampin' Dimensionals.

I had lots of fun playing with this Stamping 411 sketch…hope you do, too!

Create with Connie and Mary Challenge

This week's Create with Connie and Mary Thursday CCMC111 Challenge is a Back to School Theme!  Back to School makes me think of chalkboards.  I remember in elementary school that is was fun to be chosen for the assignment of cleaning the erasers!  I used to make patterns on the sidewalks with them…hmmm, early stamping!  OK…so I'm easily amused! 

We invite you to play along with the Create with Connie and Mary Back to School Challenge this week, and to entice you, we are offering BLOG CANDY!  Yes, by playing along this week, you could win a cool Stampin' Up! bag made from a nice vinyl with the Play Date Designer Paper pattern on it!  Your creation could be anything…a 3D item, card, scrapbook page…whatever you want…just upload your creation to InLinkz over on Create and refer back to Create with Connie and Mary CCMC111 Challenge on your blog post or gallery.

For my Challenge card, I wanted to use the cool new apple in Stampin' Up!'s Level 2 Hostess stamp set, Apple Blossoms.  I love the 4u that is written on it (sorry, the light caught it wrong!).  I inked it up with my Real Red, Old Olive and Chocolate Chip Stampin' Write Markers, then cut it out.  The books are punched with the Word Window punch and the stripes and MATH written with the Basic Black marker.  I punched teacher owl from Early Espresso cardstock and the tummy from Crumb Cake cardstock that I ran thru the Big Shot with the Square Lattice Impressions Folder for texture.  I made black eyeglasses by first punching the medium circle on the Owl Punch in Basic Black, then punching the larger circle around the medium to make rings (you have to do them separately because of how they are spaced).  Then I just cut small strips for the ear pieces and the nose piece out of Basic Black.  I layered the glasses on medium Whisper White circles, then the small circles for the pupils.  The Owl and the Apple are popped up with Stampin' Dimensionals.

The numbers, plus sign, line and chalk were cut from the Timeless Type Junior Alphabet dies with the Big Shot and Whisper White cardstock.  I cut the # symbol to make the plus sign, line and chalk.

For the rest of the card, I layered the "chalkboard" of Basic Black onto Marina Mist cardstock, then the base card of Daffodil Delight.  I'm pleased with how it turned out with the new Owl punch!

Check out what the rest of the Create with Connie and Mary Design Team did this week!  Their ideas are fabulous!  And don't forget…play along for a chance to win BLOG CANDY!

Don't forget!  Create with Connie and Mary is looking for FOUR new Design Team Members for the next session of Create with Connie and Mary, featuring the Holiday Mini!  We'd love to have you apply!  If you applied last time, try again!  We had so many great applications last time it was very hard to choose!  You can find out more information over on Create with Connie and Mary!

Punched Posies – CC283

Gosh…I haven't played along with the SCS challenges in quite a while!  I was looking for a color challenge and decided to play along with them today!  The colors are Baja Breeze, Poppy Parade, Crumb Cake and a Neutral.  Very fun color combo!

Here is my take on those colors!

For my card, I started with the Top Note die and cut the Whisper White with the Big Shot.  I also knew I wanted to use one of the phrases in Stampin' Up!'s stamp set, Word Play…I love how large the font is on these!  I picked this greeting with the thought that I'd use hearts some way…then saw my Punched Posies stamp set and decided Poppy Parade and Baja Breeze flowers was the way to go.  I stamped the words in Poppy Parade on the Whisper White, then sponged around the edges with Baja Breeze ink.

I inked up the large flower in Poppy Parade and punched with the Fancy Flower punch.  Then I stamped the smaller flowers in Baja Breeze and cut them out (they are really intended to use with the 1" circle, but I like them cut out better).   I used Stampin' Dimensionals to place them on the bottom of the Top Note.  I used a button tied with Linen Thread for the center of the large flower and the new adhesive 1/2 pearls in the centers of the smaller flowers…I LOVE these! 

I decided to add the Crumb Cake color with a butterfly in the upper right corner, so I stamped her on Whisper White with Crumb Cake for the wings and Baja Breeze for the body , then used the Butterfly punch.  She is popped up with Stampin' Dimensionals, too.  Then I decided to use the itty bitt 1/2 pearls to define her flight pattern.  LOVE how that looks!  Since the punch cut off the antenna, I drew them back on with my Baja Breeze Stampin' Write Marker.

The base of the card is Poppy Parade and I layered some Sunny Garden Designer Paper onto Baja Breeze cardstock in the background.  I think this worked out great for the SCS283 Challenge!

Well, I'm off to help move my youngest son's household today…could he have picked a busier week?  lol!

Don't forget!  Create with Connie and Mary is looking for FOUR new Design Team Members for the next session of Create with Connie and Mary, featuring the Holiday Mini!  We'd love to have you apply!  If you applied last time, try again!  We had so many great applications last time it was very hard to choose!  You can find out more information over on Create with Connie and Mary!

Wedding Reception Favors

Thought you might like to see what I spent the weekend working on for the Wedding Reception (part 3) next weekend.  As you may already know, my son was married in Cancun in June, we had one reception for her family in Wisconsin last month and the final reception is in Ohio next weekend.  This is the one my husband and I are hosting!  I decided (last minute!) to do some type of wedding favor.  I made 60 of these over the weekend, unfortunately no stamping on them, but I thought you'd still like to see them!

I found some shell candy molds at my local store and asked my upline, Candy, to show me how to do molded chocolates.  She ran over Saturday morning, showed me what to do, and I went to work.  I ended up making 200 of the smaller shells and 60 of the large starfish in both milk and white chocolate on Saturday.  Each Medium Cello Bag has a large starfish and 3 of the smaller shells.

Sunday I made the tags.  Unfortunately, the Two Tags die was too large, so I ended up using a punch tag that I had.  This was one of my favorite photos from the wedding in Cancun.  I photoshop'd it to a smaller size and added the Adam & Beth, 6-18-2010 date on the front, then printed them out in 1 1/2 x 2 1/4 size.  I layered them onto Crumb Cake punched tags, punched a hole in the top with my Crop-A-Dile, then tied them with the Kraft Satin Ribbon (non-SU)…same as I used on the wedding invitations.  I think they turned out really fun and I can't wait for the kids to see them!

Oh…and while I was waiting for the candy to chill between fillings, I was able to roll all my silverware in napkins…so another project done!  It was a productive weekend!  Woohoo!  Now if I could only find some short candles in their Cornflower color, I could finish up the centerpieces!  lol!

Don't forget!  Create with Connie and Mary is looking for FOUR new Design Team Members for the next session of Create with Connie and Mary, featuring the Holiday Mini!  We'd love to have you apply!  If you applied last time, try again!  We had so many great applications last time it was very hard to choose!  You can find out more information over on Create with Connie and Mary!

Ribbon and Designer Paper Shares Available!

Stamping 411 – Cute by the Inch

Another week and time for Stamping 411's sketch challenge #SSC163!  I sat down to work on my card and thought some designer paper would be awesome in the big block area of the sketch…but which one?  So, I ruffled thru my Designer Paper Sampler and saw this one from Play Date!  Perfect! 

And here is what I ended up with!

I pulled my colors from the Play Date Designer Paper and used Tempting Turquoise for the base of the card.  I ran the front thru the Big Shot with Finial Press Impressions Folder.  I layered the 3×4 piece of Designer Paper on Espresso Cardstock, then placed on the front of the card.  I wrapped Real Red Taffeta Ribbon around the So Saffron cardstock strip, then adhered to the bottom of the card.  I stamped Eat Cake from the Level 2 Hostess Set, Cute by the Inch, in Real Red on Whisper White, punched it with the 1 3/8 Circle punch, then layered it on the Large Oval Punch.  I added a Rhinestone Jewel to the frosting of the cupcake for a little bling!  I think this will be a fun birthday card for my little nephew (ummm, great-nephew!)

Make sure to check out the rest of the Stamping 411 Operators to see what they have done this week.  And play along!  We'd love to see what you do with the sketch inspiration.

Artistic Etchings

Look closely!  Can you believe it?  No Big Shot, no Designer Paper, no Punches!  What!  Well…back in the day…I remember we didn't have huge selections of those things to make our card creating easy!  We used SIP – stamps, ink, paper.  Now…don't get me wrong…I LOVE my Big Shot, Designer Paper and Punches, but it actually felt good just to use my stamps to create a background with ink and cardstock.  I didn't know it, but It happens that Stamping Royalty (SR 31) also has a challenge this week to create your own designer paper with stamps…so my card fits right in!

I took my color inspiration from this week's Curtain Call Challenge Act 41…love the blues in here and her inspiration of the shells.

Then I used Mary Jo's Monday Lunchtime Sketch Challenge TSSC133 for my layout:

The combination of the two gave me this:

I started by using the long medallion type stamp image in Artistic Etchings and my Stamp-a-ma-jig to create the Crumb Cake "designer paper" on the Whisper White in the background.  I added some speckles with my Color Spritzer and Marina Mist Stampin' Write Marker.  I roughed up the edges with my Distressing Tool and Marina Mist Classic Ink.  It is layered on Marina Mist cardstock, also distressed and finally on the Night of Navy base card. 

For the focal image, I stamped the Eiffel Tower from Artistic Etchings in Night of Navy on Crumb Cake cardstock, used my Color Spritzer and Distressing Tool again.  Added a small piece of Whisper White along the bottom that I stamped with the circle Medallion stamp image, again from Artistic Etchings, in Marina Mist and Crumb Cake Classic Inks randomly.   I used my Corner Rounder Punch (oops…I guess I did use ONE punch!)   I wrapped the Marina Mist Taffeta Ribbon around and secured with Linen Thread, then tied on the Night of Navy Designer Button with a bow.  I stamped Amour in Marina Mist and used more of the Color Spritzer on these layers, too.  (Darn…I just noticed that I forgot to add my scallop along the edge!  Oh well…not going to re-photograph it now!  lol!) 

I don't do Vintage a lot…I'm usually more of a "clean" type of stamper…but I did like how this turned out and how it fit the two challenges!

Don't forget!  Create with Connie and Mary is looking for FOUR new Design Team Members for the next session of Create with Connie and Mary, featuring the Holiday Mini!  We'd love to have you apply!  If you applied last time, try again!  We had so many great applications last time it was very hard to choose!  You can find out more information over on Create with Connie and Mary!