Challenge Monday

I had a chance to stamp a couple things this morning, not all of them I am sharing quite yet!  But here are a couple fun ones:

This is for the Clean and Simple challenge on SCS, which is a sketch, and also for Dawn McVey's Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #9, shown here:

Now, I don't have Grass Green, but I have Kiwi Kiss, and that's what I used for my CAS card:

This color is just so hard to photograph!  Anyway, here it is in all its Kiwi Kiss glory; images are from Flight of the Butterfly, sentiment from Short & Sweet.  Cardstock is Basic Black and Very Vanilla.  Ribbon is SU's Pigtails and Valet....that was the last of them, they're all gone now!

Next, I was a very bad aunt and had not made my nephew a graduation card yet.  He wasn't having a party, so it wasn't on my radar screen!  A friend had given me a mortarboard cap template, (I also found it here on SCS) so I made him this one:

His school colors are red, black & silver; when you open the card, there is a pocket for a gift card or cash (hard to see here):

and I added a Bible verse on the inside flap:

Sentiment is from Hugs and Wishes; Bible verse is from CHF's Scripture Essentials 1--love this set, wish I had gotten it sooner!  Some silver stars added a little interest.  Of course, the check we enclosed will interest him the most! LOL!  I made the tassel from red embroidery floss.

Thanks for looking!  Tomorrow will be a new baby card.....hint, hint!!!

Sunglasses and Umbrellas

You'd better put your sunglasses on...this umbrella is bright! For Karen's "The Sweetest Thing" sketch challenge today, I pulled out several BG Euphoria papers. Lots of bright colors and patterns make for a LOUD card:

I discovered that Melon Mambo matched these papers perfectly! Really not much to it except for the thank you from retiring Seeing Spots, and the umbrella from PTI's Scattered Showers. Card base is Bashful Blue, ink is Baja Breeze and Melon Mambo, along with some MM dotted ribbon and some dew drops! I did accent the flowers with a jelly roll pen.

Yesterday was my niece's graduation party---it poured rain, but we had fun anyway! She loves Burt's Bees products, and I happened to find a little assortment on sale, so I thought a little pizza box would be fun, especially since I am continuing on my "bee" kick! So I stamped The Bee List and colored it in:

Made a little pizza box (you can find the directions at SCS here) with SU's new Crushed Curry - an awesome color for bee stuff - and added some Recycled K&Co DP:

and plopped in the Burt's Bees:

and then wrapped it up and added a couple little embellishments:

She loved it! She is leaving next Saturday to go to Africa for a month on a Mercy Ship, and then will return home to begin nursing school in late August. She has always exhibited a caring heart, not only for the physically sick, but the spiritually needy as well. We can't wait to see what God brings her way!

Cupcake Inspiration

(This is a bit of a long post, but be sure to check out the last paragraph and check out the last link for a chuckle!)

This past week I have really been checking out the challenges at SCS; I used to look at them all the time, then stopped; now it seems I have been drawn to them again.  There are SO many challenges out in the blogging world that one just cannot do them all, so I have stepped back and am just stamping for the fun of it!

I was always intriqued when I checked a challenge in the morning and found some entries had lots and lots of comments already.  I thought, wow, they must get up at 4 am to make their cards.  And there are actually people up, reading and looking and their cards!  Duh.  I now realize that many times, challenges are posted late the night before.  I guess lots of people know this---I did not!  And because I had a sinus headache and couldn't sleep, I was still up when the Inspiration Challenge was posted here.  There are some very creative packaging ideas out there!  So quick like a bunny (as quickly as one can at 11:30 with a sinus headache) I came up with this card based on this inspiration:

This would HAVE to be inspired by something because I would never put all these color together like this!  In fact, I have no idea for what occasion I would even use this card---maybe DD's birthday!  DH would scratch his head in wonderment if I sent it to him!!!  But I thought it was kind of fun and funky.  Maybe it was the headache talking to me!

On another note, at last night's party, I had asked my stampers to bring a child's birthday card for Cards For Heroes.  My good friend Robyn brought two cards like this:

 

 

 

 

 

When you pull on the tab at the top, you get this:

 

 

 

 

 

The balloons and the string pop up with the insert!  This is so cute, I just love this concept!  And I know some children are going to love these too!  Thanks, Robyn!

 

 

On a final funny note, you have GOT to check out this post from Australian SU demo, Makeesha Byl.  Just scroll down to the end......you will CRACK UP!!!  If your kids are driving you nuts, this will put it all into perspective!!!  Have a great day--it is grad party day for my sweet niece and it looks like the weather will hold, so it should be fun!  Thanks for visiting!

Stampin' in Your Sleep

I had a little stamp party tonight, just sort of a "last hurrah" for the retiring sets.  We only had four stampers, plus a guest daughter stamper, but we had lots of fun!  I don't even have photos of the cards to show, but I did something that I don't normally do at my clubs or workshops, and that is play games!  I got a list of games from SCS and one they suggested was "Stampin' In Your Sleep".  You form teams and help a blindfolded stamper "stamp" something--supposedly just by talking her through it!!!  It was really fun and I am sure we broke the rules, but everybody ended up with a card that wasn't half bad:

Brave Lorraine was the first to go....here Anna and daughter Brooke are "guiding" her with the punch!

It looks like she is peeking at the card through her blindfold, doesn't it?  But she was just "feeling" her way around! 

Here's her finished card!  And then my camera batteries died.......

but DH found some by the time everyone was finished!!!  Then we stamped some more and ate some yummy desserts!  A great Friday night!

Cooling Off

Just a quick post today--the Limited Supply challenge today at SCS was to make a card with colors of water and sand!  So I pulled out my favorite Beautiful Beach and a new-t0-me Crafty Secrets set, Seaside.  I mixed up some Baja Breeze, Cool Caribbean and PTI's Aqua Mist with Kraft for my creation:

Thanks for visiting today!

• Stamps:  Beautiful Beach (ret), Seaside, CS
• Paper:  Naturals White, Kraft, Baja Breeze, Cool Caribbean, Aqua Mist (PTI)
• Ink:  Versamark, Creamy Caramel, Baja Breeze
• Acc:  Twine, 1/4" square punch, brads, paper piercer, daubers

Some Nice Blog Candy!

Check out Mudmaven's blog for some nice blog candy! You can see it here.

Just Bee-cause

I had a lovely evening, spent with my daughter watching The Secret Life of Bees.  I really do love bees--I love their sound, their function, I love beehives, honey, but not when they begin to make their home in MY home....but that's another story.  And although I liked the movie, I liked the book much better!  Anyway, I thought it was quite funny that we watched this movie right after I had made THIS card:

This is a new stamp called The Bee List from Cornish Heritage Farms, designed by Julia Stainton, and I loved it from the minute I saw her sample, so I treated myself to it (and a few others).  I couldn't wait to match it up with some lovely BG Porcelain paper.  I gulped and added that big lovely satin bow and a few little sweet buttons from my stash, and honestly, this was one of the fastest cards I ever made!!!  All the images were watercolored and the shading is from a sponge dauber.

And just a little braggin' on my DD and her pup Chase:

 

Did you ever see such ears?  He is such a cutie! 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

 

 

• Stamps:  The Bee List, CHF
• Paper:  Naturals White, Porcelain, BG
• Ink:  Stazon, Cert Celery, Pirouette Pink, So Saffron
• Acc:  Aquapainter, Sponge Dauber, Ribbon, Glue Dots