InkspiredTreasures.com

CCMC200 – It’s A Celebration!

WOOHOO!!!  It's a CELEBRATION! 

Create with Connie and Mary is celebrating their 100th challenge (we started numbering on #100)!!!  Hard to believe we actually have been doing them each week for that long!  To celebrate…we have some BLOG CANDY for those that play along with the challenge this week!  Check out all the details over on Create with Connie and Mary!

Since this is a special challenge, we are doing a special theme…

• Make a celebration card
• Use your favorite designer series paper from the MAIN catalog (before it retires)
• OPTIONAL:  Use a banner or pennant on your card

Here is MY celebration card:

I started with my favorite Designer Paper in the main catalog…Hostess Only Cheerful Treat!  I love the bright colors!  The base of my square 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 card is Melon Mambo.  I layered on Lucky Limeade, then Whisper White.  For the pinwheel, I cut three 1 3/4" squares of the patterns in the Designer Paper, cut them in half, then rounded one of the corners.  I arranged the points together and spaced them around that center point evenly.  To hide that area of overlapping points, I punched a 1" Circle of Lucky Limeade, then added a Brights Button tied with Lucky Limeade Baker's Twine.  I stamped Celebrate Today from Stampin' Up!'s Perfectly Penned in Basic Black on Melon Mambo, cut it into the pennant shape and attached it under the button and to the front with a Stampin' Dimensional.

I love the whimsical look of my card and hope you do, too!  Make sure to check out the BLOG CANDY and what the other Challenge Team Members did for our special 100th Challenge over on Create with Connie and Mary!  Then grab your stuff and play along!

Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I wish for you peace and happiness

at Christmas

and throughout the New Year!

"For unto you a child is born,

unto us a son is given…"

Isaiah 9:6

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The layout for my card is from the Stamping 411 Sketch for today.  Please check out the Stamping 411 website to see the other Operator's cards!  Each Operator also has Blog Candy available!  You'll need to leave a comment on EACH Operator's personal blogs…8 operators equals 8 chances to win! 

For your comment on my blog, please share your favorite holiday song!  You may leave comments up til 8:00 AM Eastern Time on Thursday, December 30th.  Winners will be randomly chosen announced next Friday evening with my Stamping 411 post! 

I have a new, unmounted Hostess Only Level 2 SNOW BUDDIES stamp set for you to win PLUS,  6×6 Hostess Level 1 Designer Paper Pack Patterns III.

Good luck!

Blog Tour 1 – Stop 2 and BLOG CANDY!

It’s here!  Today is the day for the Blog Tour.  My stop is Blog Tour 1 – Stop 2! 

I’ll be showing you several examples of the stamp set, Scene in a Garden, from the Occasions Mini Catalog.  In addition, each of my samples includes a greeting from one of the Get Connected promotion stamps on page 208, choose any one selection FREE with a $40 order from the Occasions Mini! 

After you visit my Blog (and leave a comment for BLOG CANDY!), you’ll go on to Stop 3 – Tiffany’s Bauers’ Blog.  I’m sure you’ll be inspired by her awesome work with the stamp set, Very Versatile, from the Occasions Mini!  Tiffany is the current Rising Star…winning that title at the Stampin’ Up! Convention last year.  She will have a link to the next Blog…and on you go!  There are a total of 17 stops in all on this Blog Tour…but the links are only live today!  So don’t wait!  Make sure you check out all the beautiful samples of stamp sets in the Occasions Mini. 

When the tour is over and you circle back here, I know you’ll be anxious to order some of these wonderful sets since you’ll have all these great ideas and you’ll want to receive your choice of the FREE stamp with $40 Mini Occasion purchase!  AND, don’t forget about my Customer Appreciation Special going on until the end of April!  You can own that darling Oval All set FREE!  Email or phone me with your order…I’ll take GOOD care of you!

My first card I used several stamps in the Scene in a Garden set…the bench, the birdhouse, the little bird and the stack of pots!  I stamped them in Basic Brown on Whisper White and colored them with my blender pen and markers.  I roughed up the edges with my Cutter Kit Distressing Tool and layered it on Chocolate Chip cardstock.  The size of the base card is 5 1/4 x 5 1/4.  The brocade paper on the right is from Bella Birds Designer Paper package.  I used so Saffron, Pink Pirouette and Chocolate Chip pieces of cardstock on the left.  I did some random piercing on the left of the color blocks and the right I did an entire row of piercings.  I added a Designer Flower Brad in each of the blocks (without planning on using those brads, they matched perfectly!)  The greeting is part of the Get Connected promotion…the Note of Thanks Mini Note Kit…FREE with a $40 Occasions Mini Catalog purchase!  I punched it with the Scallop Oval Punch, also available in the Occasions Mini Catalog…I love it!  Finally, I added a small piece of Pink Pirouette striped ribbon looped under the focal piece and curled a couple of the edges of paper.

My next sample uses the trio of mud boots from Scene in a Garden…between it and the birdhouse, I don’t know which stamp I like more in that set! 

I started by cutting the medium oval from Whisper White cardstock and the large oval in Bashful Blue cardstock from the Ovals Bigz Die.  Then I stamped the boots with Basic Black on Whisper White and colored them with Pumpkin Pie, Ruby Red, Close to Cocoa and Bashful Blue markers.  I sponged the edges with Bashful Blue and added a little ground underneath the boots.  I layered this onto the Bashful Blue and then free-hand pierced the holes around the perimeter of the Bashful Blue oval.  I used the bright check pattern from Washington Apple Designer Paper and took my colors from it.  I layered it over a strip of So Saffron.  The base card is Riding Hood Red with a layer of Pumpkin Pie over it.  I added some Riding Hood Red striped ribbon.  Finally, I stamped the greeting from the Note of Thanks Mini Note Kit…the other stamp in this kit you can get FREE this month with every $40 purchase from the Occasions Mini Catalog!

My third card was the easiest one to make and probably my favorite one! 

I started with a base of Basic Gray cardstock.  I added a layer of Whisper White.  On top of the Whisper White, I added Not Quite Navy and Kiwi Kiss pieces.  I ran them through the Big Shot with the Texturz Kit #4 wood grain texture.  For the focal piece, I stamped the vase with grasses in Kiwi Kiss, then used my marker to color the vase with Not Quite Navy.  I used the marker and Blender Pen to color the inside of the vase, too.  I layered the Whisper White on Basic Gray cardstock and pierced all along the edges.  Then I inked the Happy Birthday to You greeting (another FREE stamp possibility with a $40 Occasions Mini purchase!) and used my marker to color a couple of the words Not Quite Navy.  I layered that on Basic Gray cardstock, too.  Finally, I placed the small Kiwi Kiss Corduroy Button brad through the Corduroy Button to make a layered button brad and attached that to the Not Quite Navy piece.

So…if you remember…I offered some BLOG CANDY if you left a message on my Blog post today!  Just leave a comment telling me which card YOU like the best and your name will go in a drawing for all three of the cards PLUS your very own Scene in a Garden stamp set!  I’ll take comments until midnight Monday…and choose the random winner on Tuesday morning.  U.S. residents only, please…  GOOD LUCK and don’t forget to check back to see if you won!

Here is Tiffany’s Blog again…for Tour 1 – Stop 3!

Blogger’s Challenge – Week 69

Uh, oh…I woke up not realizing it was Friday already!  It has been a short week for me with the Columbus Day holiday on Monday.  It’s time for the Blogger’s Challenge already!  This week we needed to use the color combination of Old Olive, Really Rust and Riding Hood Red.

Hmmm, these colors look almost Christmasy to me.  I’ve had this set, Brocade Basics, for a while, but I don’t think I’ve ever inked it up!  Shame on me…  It is a very pretty set! 

And, this didn’t turn out they way I pictured it in my head.  I still think it needs something in the lower left, but anything I tried to put there just didn’t fit right.  So, this will have to do!

I chose to use my Craft Ink pads and Clear EP for the Old Olive stem and Really Rust and Riding Hood Red flowers (well, the Versamark and Classic Ink trick for the Riding Hood Red anyway).  I cut out the flowers and mounted them on the opposite color 1 1/4 circle punch.  In the centers, I punched some Faux Diamond Dust Old Olive cardstock I had in my scraps file.  I love the wide striped ribbon we have in the In-Colors and it wrapped around the base of the stem perfectly.  I scalloped the top edge of the Very Vanilla, which left my Vanilla piece a little short, so I added a strip of Old Olive cardstock at the bottom.  I like that little edge color band!

Have a great weekend!

Don’t forget to leave a comment on my Blog Candy post to win a year’s subscription to Paper Crafts Magazine and the October Issue that has my Rub-on Candle in it!  I’ll be choosing the winner on Sunday at 5 PM.  Sorry, US residents only.

BLOG CANDY!

In celebration of being published in Paper Crafts Magazine for the first time, I’m offering YOU some Blog Candy!  I also want to thank you for reading my Blog and for your comments.  I like hearing from you!

This is the candle I submitted to Paper Crafts…aren’t they awesome for sending it back to me?  The Blog Candy does NOT include the candle…sorry.  I picked up several of the candles and holders at the dollar store a couple years ago and they sat in my cupboard.  When Paper Crafts sent out a call for using rub-ons in different ways, I used the Stampin’ Up! Sale-A-Bration rub-ons on the candle, wrapped some ribbon around the stand, added some beads from the Pretties kit and sent this in to them.  VERY simple, but makes a pretty impressive gift, I think!

So…for Blog Candy…you will get this October issue of Paper Crafts Magazine AND a 1 year FREE Gift Subscription to Paper Crafts Magazine!  Unfortunately this will be limited to new subscribers only!  (Don’t worry…I have another Blog Candy Award coming up SOON that everyone can participate in!)

So, leave me a comment telling me one thing you’ve seen on my Blog that you really like or one thing that you’d like to see me do with my Blog.  I’ll chose a random number from all the entries.  Please, only one comment per person!  Thanks!  Winner will be drawn Sunday, October 19 at 5:00 PM.