Bloggers Challenge

Bloggers Challenge – A Sketch

June 18, 2010 By Connie | 17 Comments

Another Friday and time for Bloggers' Challenge. Lisa made up a sketch for us to use this week. As you know, I LOVE sketches! This one came together pretty quickly!

I started by cutting the Oval from Whisper White with the Ovals Die and the Big Shot. I also cut the Sahara Sand piece at the bottom of the oval at the same time. I tore the top edge and added sand granules with the Itty Bitty Backgrounds speckle stamp in Sahara Sand. I used a sponge dauber to add some Tempting Turquoise water above it. Then I inked up the palm tree from Tropical Party with Chocolate Chip and Old Olive Stampin' Write Markers, stamped it twice. I punched a 1 1/4" hole in a scrap piece of cardstock, then used a sponge dauber and Summer Sun to make the sun in the background.

I layered the oval on polka dot pattern from Island Oasis Designer Paper and then Sahara Sand cardstock. I ran a piece of Old Olive thru the Big Shot with the Perfect Polka Dots Impressions folder. I wrapped the 1" Chocolate Chip Ribbon around to the back and secured. The entire piece was adhered to the base card of Tempting Turquoise. Finally, I added two Kraft Corduroy Buttons and cut small slivers of Chocolate Chip cardstock to make the "thread". I used Mini Glue Dots to secure to the front of the card! I stamped Happy Birthday from Teeny Tiny Wishes in Chocolate Chip on Sahara Sand, punched with the Word Window and then punched the Modern Label from Chocolate Chip cardstock.

I like how it turned out! Hope you have a WONDERFUL weekend!

Bloggers Challenge – Father’s Day

June 11, 2010 By Connie | 20 Comments

Today's Bloggers' Challenge theme is Father's Day…it IS right around the corner! Of course, June is FULL of men birthdays in my family. I feel like I'm making all kinds of masculine cards this time of year! I decided to use the Holiday Blitz set that is retiring in a few weeks. I'm sad because it is one of those fun sets that has a lot of little holiday images. When you are stuck, you can always turn to it for inspiration! If the layout of the card looks familiar, it is because I designed it for a Sketch Challenge on Create with Connie and Julie's Occasion Edition!

I started with a base card of Night of Navy and added a layer of Bashful Blue on top. I took my colors from the Travel Journal Designer Paper in the Summer Mini. To me, that stripe looks like a tie! I added the strip of striped Designer Paper, then added the horizontal Pumpkin Pie strips of cardstock. Then I stamped the tie from Holiday Blitz in Night of Navy, Bashful Blue and Pumpkin Pie on Whisper White, then punched with the 1 3/4 Circle. I layered it on a 2" Circle cut with the Circle Scissors. Can you tell what the Pumpkin Pie Designer Paper is cut from? If you said the Basket & Blooms XL Die…you are right! It is the base of the basket! I know…I used another package of Designer Paper, Island Oasis, but it just matched too perfectly with the colors I was using! And, I adhered the polka dot designer paper to light weight chipboard before I cut it with the die, so it is nice and chunky on the front of the card. Finally, I stamped Dear Dad from Holiday Blitz with Night of Navy on Whisper White, then punched with the 1" circle and layered on a Night of Navy 1 1/4 Circle.

What do you think? This will be my father in law's card this year. We always tease him on how many ties he has in his closet!

Create with Connie and Mary is looking for three Design Team Members to play along with our Thursday Creative Challenges each week! You'll need to use Stampin' Up! only products, have a blog where you can post your Thursday Challenge card, and love to use sketch, color or inspiration challenges as a starting point in your creations! See more details over on Create with Connie and Mary! We'd love for you to join us each week!

Bloggers Challenge – Red/White/Blue

May 28, 2010 By Connie | 17 Comments

Our Bloggers Challenge today is the color combination of Red/White/Blue in honor of Memorial Day. I want to thank the men and women who honor us by their service to our country. May God Bless them!

Pretty simple card today…I wanted an understated look. I started with the card size of 3 x 6 in Brilliant Blue cardstock. I pierced a row of holes along the top of a strip of Real Red cardstock and layered it on the base. Then I added a strip of slightly wider Whisper White over the bottom edge of the Whisper White. I stamped the star from Stampin' Up!'s July Fourth stamp set in Brilliant Blue and Real Red on Whisper White, then punched with the Large Star punch. I popped them up on the front of the card with Stampin' Dimensionals. I added the word Remember from In A Word, a stamp set in the Summer Mini in Basic Black in the lower right corner. Finally, I used the Itty Bitty circle punch with Brilliant Blue cardstock, and added a Bitty Button Circle on top and placed it with a Mini Glue Dot.

I'm off today to work over at Mary's house (of Create with Connie and Mary!) on my wedding favors. Hope to get a good chunk of them done. The final assembly will be made onsite in Cancun. I'm sure we will also be discussing the NEXT session of Create! Have a great weekend!

Bloggers Sketch Challenge

May 21, 2010 By Connie | 19 Comments

Today's Bloggers Challenge is a sketch! As you know, I LOVE sketches! This card came together pretty quickly using it. I used Watercolor Trio again as it is one of the three sets we are featuring this week over on Create with Connie and Mary…Watercolor Trio, Bouquet Bunch and A Little Bit of Magic from Stampin' Up!'s Summer Mini.

I decided to turn the sketch on its side so my flowers would fit a little better. I started with a base of Certainly Celery cardstock and layered on Cameo Coral, one of the retiring colors! I used a strip of the Sahara Sand Polka Dot pattern from Thoroughly Modern Designer Paper in the background. On the Very Vanilla cardstock, I stamped the three flower/leaves images randomly in Certainly Celery, Sahara Sand and Cameo Coral Classic Inks.

I wrapped some Certainly Celery Satin Ribbon around and tied a bow. In the lower right corner, I used three 1/2" circles in Sahara Sand, Very Vanilla and Certainly Celery for the accents. I stamped Birthday Wishes from Watercolor Trio on Sahara Sand and punched with the Large Oval Punch, then layered on a Certainly Celery Scallop Oval punched piece. It was popped up with Stampin' Dimensionals! I love this color combo…will be sad to see that pretty Cameo Coral go away.

It certainly is not too late to join Create with Connie and Mary Summer Edition! At $24.95, it is certainly a bargain for all the ideas you'll get to make gifts or host stamp camps or classes for your customers. There is a new project posted every day and we have a minimum of two fabulous tutorials each and every week. Our site stays up long after the session is done, so you will plenty of time to access the site and refer back to the tutorials. For more information and to see our Preview Week projects please visit at Create with Connie and Mary!

Bloggers Challenge – Color Scheme

May 14, 2010 By Connie | 23 Comments

Lisa gave us a real challenge for today's Bloggers Challenge…Real Red, Taken with Teal and Crushed Curry. Can you say BRIGHT! But, they actually were fun to work with!

For some reason, these colors had a masculine feel to them for me (or at least they did today!) I started with a base of Taken with Teal cardstock. I added the Crushed Curry Scallop Edge Punch strip to the bottom of the Jackpot Designer Paper. I wrapped some 5/8 Basic Black Grosgrain RIbbon along the top of the Designer Paper and secured on the back.

I stamped the King of the Grill image with Basic Black on Confetti White, then used my AquaPainter and Stampin' Write Markers in Taken with Teal, Crushed Curry, Real Red and Going Gray to color in the image. I layered it on Basic Black. I stamped "King of the Grill" in Basic Black on Crushed Curry, then punched with the Large Oval Punch. I layered it on a Basic Black punched Modern Label and added two Real Red Mini Brads on the sides. I added it to the card with Stampin' Dimensionals.

I think this will be a fun Father's Day card for my husband! I'm anxious to see what the others have done with this color challenge!

Stay tuned tomorrow for a couple posts! I have the SUDSOL Blog Tour going on, plus this week's Create with Connie and Mary's Color Challenge! Fun day, so make sure you check back!

Bloggers Challenge – Mother’s Day cards

May 7, 2010 By Connie | 23 Comments

It's Friday and time for another Bloggers' Challenge! The theme is Mother's Day cards this week. Good timing since I need to make up cards for my Mother and Mother in law.

I thought my mother would like this card with the blending of colors. You might remember I used the same color scheme a few weeks ago with this set (Ballet Blue, Pumpkin Pie and Mellow Moss). I designed this card for my Stamp Club members to do at the last meeting. They loved it!

I started with a base card of Ballet Blue cardstock. On the Whisper White layer, I stamped the medallion randomly from Stampin' Up!'s Charming set in the three colors, Ballet Blue, Pumpkin Pie and Mellow Moss. I tied a Mellow Moss Taffeta Ribbon around and tied in a bow. I added a little Jewelry Tag Punch with the words "Thanks So Much" from the Tiny Tags stamp set. (Charming, Tiny Tags and the Jewelry tag punch are STILL available even though they don't show in the Summer Mini!….yeah, Stampin' Up!) I cut the Lattice Die from Pumpkin Pie cardstock and layered it on Mellow Moss cardstock.

For the center, I stamped the words in Charming with Ballet Blue Classic Ink (stamped off for a lighter version), then used my Stampin' Write Markers to ink up the flower with Mellow Moss and Pumpkin Pie and stamped over the words. I punched it with the Wide Oval punch. I layered it on the Ballet Blue Medallion cut from Lots of Tags Sizzlets! I love how pretty the Wide Oval layers with that tag!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend! I'm spending a RELAXING one! Yeah!

Bloggers Challenge – Emboss it

April 30, 2010 By Connie | 16 Comments

NOTE: This is my second post for today! To see Day 6 of Create with Connie and Mary's Preview Week and Kerin's cute Vintage Bag, click here!

Today's Bloggers' Challenge is to Emboss it! I chose to feature the project that my Stamp Club did last night. It was inspired by one that Mary Brown made using Vintage Vogue. I changed out the colors and featured Stampin' Up!'s Fancy Flower Stamp Set which is on sale for 20% off this month and the Glassine bags which are in the Occasions Mini! TODAY IS THE LAST DAY TO ORDER FROM THE OCCASIONS MINI!

So…where is the embossing? A couple places! First, I dry embossed the Glassine Bag with the Finial Press Impressions Folder…just run it thru the Big Shot like a normal piece of cardstock! It creates the impression on both sides of the bag…really cool! Second, the center of the flowers are made with Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder to make them sparkle. I applied Versamark to a large strip of Pixie Pink cardstock, then sprinkled on Iridescent Ice EP and heat set it. Then I punched the small flower from Boho Blossoms Punch out of the sparkly cardstock! A great way to get some glitter highlights!

For the rest, I cut a strip of 1 1/2" x 12" Pixie Pink cardstock and folded it in half for the belly band. I stamped the small flower with Pixie Pink Classic Ink randomly over the cardstock. I added two strips of Certainly Celery behind the front piece and used the Scallop Edge Punch along each side. I stamped the large flowers in So Saffron and two-step outline with Pixie Pink, then cut the flowers out. The leaves were stamped off with Certainly Celery, then outlined with full strength Certainly Celery Classic Ink. Finally, the Certainly Celery Mini Brad holds the belly band closed. I stamped Sweet Treats from Teeny Tiny Wishes with Pixie Pink on Whisper White and punched with the Small Oval Punch. I used a sponge dauber to add some Pixie Pink around the edges. For the inside, I had Chocolate Chip cookies available. They had a choice to put it in the bag or eat it! lol! I think more than half ate the cookie! They must have liked this project, I sold lots of Glassine bags and Fancy Flower stamp sets! Thanks ladies!

Don't forget…if you want anything from the Occasions Mini, you need to place your order from me today! The stamp sets that are 20% off this month are Trendy Trees, Flower Fancy, Fifth Avenue Floral and Greenhouse Garden. Several items are sold out from the Occasions Mini, too. Sweet Pea Designer Paper, Sweet Pea Stitched Felt Flowers, On Board Heart Book (although I do have one if you want it), and Eggscellent Egg Kit are all unavailable.

The Summer Edition starts on SUNDAY! Don't be left out! Sign up for the 4 week subscription today! More details on Create with Connie and Mary!

Bloggers Challenge – Color Challenge

April 23, 2010 By Connie | 23 Comments

When I first heard that Lisa picked Blue, Orange and Moss for our color challenge, I hesitated. But, after playing with them, I really do like them! Two out of the three colors I chose will be retiring after this catalog is over…Brocade Blue and Mellow Moss.

I just recently purchased Stampin' Up!'s Simply Adorned charm and coordinating Chaming Stamp Set (available as a write-in item…it is not in the catalogs yet). I really love the small sized stamps in this set. I have plans to make a lot of these charm inserts! I think they are darling!

I knew I didn't have any coordinating designer paper that matched the colors we were suppsoed to use, so I created my own. I used the small medallion stamp in Chaming and used Pumpkin Pie, Mellow Moss and Brocade Blue randomly over the Whisper White cardstock. I layered it on a wide band of Pumpkin Pie and then a layer of Brocade Blue. I tied the white Satin Stripe Ribbon around and tied a bow. I used the word background stamp in Charming for the background of my circle element, then my Stampin' Write Markers to color in the floral vine. I punched with the 1 3/8 circle punch, then layered on the Scallop Circle Punch. I pierced the holes in each of the scallops with my piercing tool. The background Mellow Moss I ran thru the Big Shot with the new Square Lattice Impressions Folder. Then layered it on my base card of Brocade Blue. I repeated the process for my 1 x 1 1/4 charm insert. I like how these turned out!

Reminder that SUNDAY is the last day to take advantage of the Early Bird Subscription savings going on now! Save $5 off the normal $24.95! Check out the Early Bird projects on Create with Connie and Mary! Demonstrators and customers are welcome to join! You'll get lots of ideas using the upcoming Summer Mini Catalog stamps and accessories!