Merry Monday 55

Happy Monday!  It’s time for another Merry Monday Christmas card challenge!  Today, Lesley has another fun Tic-tac-toe challenge:

I chose the center vertical column, and since I hadn’t done anything vintage for a while, I pulled out my Vintage Christmas from Crafty Secrets:

I just love this Santa image!  I used Soft Suede and a neutral palette to qualify for the Jingle Belles challenge to “Keep It in Neutral”!!!  I used some Lost & Found MME papers….just gorgeous…..and I used a SU paper-piercing template in a banner shape to pierce my little embellishment:

I dyed some seam binding and colored a silver brad for my shabby bow, and there is even a little additional piercing on my little holly leaves:

I hope you’ll play along with our fun challenge this week!  Be sure to stop over at Lesley’s blog, Always Playing with Paper, to see all the cool creations our designers have made with their tic-tac-toes!

I got Cassidy some Easter bunny clings, which enjoyed sticking to the fridge:

She embellished them with her magnets:

And she even played with them on the floor…..one bunny is “eating” apples and the other one is “eating” carrots!!!!

Thanks for visiting today!

Paper Players 138

Hi there, peeps!  Happy Palm Sunday to you all!  Anne Marie has an awesome sketch for the Paper Players today…this one just made me smile, it has great opportunity for lots of papers and/or images! 

Since Anne Marie is such a pet lover, I couldn’t help but use a little image from Animal Talk, along with some much-neglected Comfort Café DP:

I cut apart the dog image from the main sentiment, which made it a bit easier to stamp and paper piece!!!  He is stamped on a piece of Cajun Craze Patterns DP and I added white highlights with a white gel pen.   For the banner sentiment, I just masked off the part I didn’t want, and stamped it in Midnight Muse, adding some periods……

and just finished the sentence on the inside, along with some additional embellishments:

You can see I used some zig zag diecuts from the Tasteful Trim die, and perhaps you can see the zig zag embossing on the right front of the card, done with the Borders Scoring Plate!  My woodgrain panel is from the Natural Composition Specialty paper line, which qualifies my card for the City Crafter Challenge 151 this week, which is woodgrain!  And I also used a little woodgrain button from the mini catalog, along with some denim ribbon.

I hope you find this sketch enticing and hope you’ll play along with us this week!  You can find all the other samples as well at the Paper Players blog!

We are great fans of Inner Child Fun after seeing Valerie on one of my local news programs one morning….she has lots of fun crafts that are easy to do.  I decided to make a sponge bomb from this video but when I banded it together, Cassidy got upset….she just wanted to play with the sponges!  So I took it apart and she used them like blocks!

She is just so proud of herself!!!!  Thanks for visiting today!

CTS20

Wow, two posts in one day!!!  I was thrilled to earn an Honorable Mention at CAS(E) this Sketch for this card!  And how fun is this week’s sketch?

I had been itching to use some of this Fan Fair DP for a masculine card, so I went to work; not sure how CAS this is, plus I realized I didn't put the sentient in the right place, but I had fun making it:

And here is the tag inside:

And HEY!  I used the new polymer stamp set Designer Typeset….a fun little set!  The letters are tiny though…..I almost lost my “e” on my navy blue carpet!!! Yikes!  I stamped the banner on Crumb Cake with Not Quite Navy, cut it out and curved it a wee bit to fit on my little envelope.

I used some Sahara Sand to make my tag and stamped the sentiment from Delightful Dozen.  Fun little masculine get-well!

STB11

I had some unexpected free stamping time yesterday, so I pulled out some pretty MME papers to use with the Seize the Birthday sketch:

I could go crazy with all the prints and patterns, but I finally decided on these:

I stamped a Papertrey flower on some white paper in Rich Razzleberry---another color I haven’t used in AGES----and used sponges to ink it with Pretty in Pink, Melon Mambo and Rich Razzleberry, then fussy-cut it out.  The leaves were cut freehand, sponging the edges, then I folded them in half and ran them through my crimper for a fun 3D effect.

I stamped the flower again over my inside sentiment, this time using Pretty in Pink:

This also qualifies for the Catered Crop Flower Power challenge this week!  And since I already had the papers on my desk, I made another card with a similar layout, punching a flower out of some of the coordinating paper:

That little flower looked a little bare, so I added a ladybug from the Itty Bitties set…sorry, I am hooked on those little images!

Thanks for peeking in today!

The only way I could get Cassidy to eat her Cheerios last week:

FMS78

Ah, finally Friday!  I am so happy to see the weekend ahead!  I have another hostess thank-you card, using the Freshly Made Sketches sketch 78:

I thought I should try to use some colors that I don’t normally use, so today I chose Tangerine Tango:

The monarch butterfly from Papillon Potpourri is my main focus here, stamped in Stazon and watercolored with reinkers.  I used some First Edition DP for my main panel and a wee strip of Patterns DP for the top, adding a black punched embellishment and some Natural ribbon on which to mount my dyed Flower Trim.

A sentiment from Petite Pairs was stamped on my little banner and anchored with a black glimmer brad, and I also did a wee bit of embossing at the bottom with my Borders Scoring Plate:

Thanks for visiting today!  Any questions---pop me an email!

 

Cassidy took advantage of the steps to make them into beds for her dolls:

That kid is always thinkin’!!!!

Club Projects

Happy Thursday!  Only TWO more days of Sale-a-bration!  I am sad to see these stamps go….I have had not enough time to play with them this year!  I promised you I would show you the two projects my clubs made, and here they are! 

The first one is a CASE from the famous Ann Clemmer at Stamper Dog!  I have enjoyed reading her blog and seeing her creations…if you’re not familiar with her, check it out!  The card I cased can be seen here.

I loved the spotlighting technique she used, and we had never done it in club, so I made a few changes and the girls really enjoyed it!

The second one uses the triple-time stamping technique, another one I had been itching to try!  I used some retiring In Colors (although I did hear that Pool Party and Calypso Coral may be hanging around---YAY!!!!):

We also learned how to make a paper bow from the great tutorial by Connie Collins shown here.  I think on my original, I had my bow placed a little more to the left….it looks a little odd here!  But they loved this too!

During playtime yesterday, Cassidy insisted on bringing out Lambie and baby doll so she could give them a ride:

Thanks for popping by today!

DD44 & SC428

Happy Wednesday, peeps!  I am way late today---had a busy day yesterday, no stamping time, but I did get my taxes done!  Today, it was cold but sunny outside, so Cassidy and I did some playtime in the fresh air!

I have not participated in any SCS or Dynamic Duos challenges lately, so I thought I would marry Korin’s sketch and Lesley’s colors today!  You an see the sketch here and here is the DD challenge:

Since I needed a hostess thank you, I used all SU products today:

My hostess just happened to purchase a Big Shot AND the Itty Bitties set, so I used both in making my card!  The Top Note is embossed with the Cloudy Day EF---I even punched out a piece from it to use for the scalloped mat behind my bee image---just covered up the hole with my striped panel-----and I used the little bee for my banner!   I love the fresh, clean look of this!  I added a little glitter to his wings, too:

The bee is from Every Little Bit and the sentiment is from Fabulous Phrases, and the banner was cut with the Itty Bitty Banner die. 

Thanks for looking today!

Some pictures from earlier today (we had to add the scarf later—so blustery!!!  And the mittens are courtesy of my friend Denise!):