IB12 Fresh Spring

Happy Thursday, peeps!  We have a two-hour delay today because of the snow..it's pretty, but it sure throws a monkey wrench in plans we make, LOL!  Anyway, it's time for another Inspired By challenge and this week there is a prize up for grabs!  Woohoo!  You can go to the IB blog to check it out!!!  And here's my bright, cheerful, springy creation for your perusal:

And here is the challenge photo that Laurel chose for us:

SO pretty!  I couldn't resist using this cute little Penny Black chick with his daffodil "shade"...I stamped him in Stazon Black and used Daffodil Delight and Hello Honey inks to watercolor him in!  My papers are from My Mind's Eye and some retired SU in Pacific Point.  I added a few little speckles, some sequins from my stash and a pretty yellow grosgrain ribbon:

My sentiment is from Technique Tuesday...and I sure could use some "fresh sights of spring"!!!

Finally, I added a little bee on the honeycomb paper, just for fun...it's from Jar of Love, which I fussy-cut, although I realized after the fact that I have a die for it!!  Duh!

If you've been thinking about joining our challenge, this would be a great week to do so!  Check out what the others created at the Inspired By blog...you'll be wowed!  

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Awesomely Artistic, Jar of Love, Beauty of Spring (Technique Tuesday), Spring Joy (Penny Black)
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Pacific Point Patterns (ret), Honey-The Sweetest Thing DSP (My Mind's Eye)
Ink	Stazon Black, Pacific Point, Daffodil Delight, Hello Honey (ret)
Accessories	Sequins (Sylvia's Etsy Shop), Crushed Curry Ribbon (ret)
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Rectangle Dies (Lil' Inker), Aquapainter, 1/8" Hole Punch

FMS329 and FF133 Easy Cards

Happy Wednesday, everyone!  I am really late today posting....it's snowing like crazy and I took the time to work on a few projects around the house that I'd been procrastinating on!!  So afterwards I rewarded myself with some stamping time!  My first card is a Christmas card using the Freshly Made Sketches sketch designed by Kim:

This one looked better in my head than on paper, but I hated to just toss it, so it will just be one of the ones that don't meet my "favorite" criteria!  I used the deer print from Be Merry and the Card Front Builder Thinlets to cut out some sparkly Glimmer paper trees; the deer from Carols of Christmas was stamped on some kraft paper and diecut with the same die set:

The little flourish is also from Carols of Christmas, and the "peace" is from Christmas Quilt.  These lovely products are just around for too short of a time, I never feel like I get good use of them, so it was satisfying to get them out and use them! I embossed a panel of Whisper White with the Softly Falling (so appropriate for the view out my window today) and mounted everything on it, then mounted that on a Chocolate Chip card base.

My next set of cards uses the simple but lovely sketch from Fab Friday:

I realized I hadn't used any of the Whole Lot of Lovely DSP for a while, and it is probably one of my favorites from this year!!!  I had a little piece of it already cut down, so I cut that piece into thirds to make my trio of thank you cards:

I used different mat colors for each one, mixing up the embellishments for each, but kept the sketch and the sentiment the same.  The Old Olive panel on this one was embossed with the Quilt Top embossing folder and accented with some burlap ribbon:

The Calypso Coral one (which matches the flower much better IRL than it does in this photo!) was accented with a little piece of Soft Sky that was diecut with one of the Window Box Thinlets and pieced together....such a cute little scallop!  I added some Linen Thread with a one-hole bow so it would stay put:

And finally, the Soft Sky panel was embossed with the Ruffled embossing folder and accented with some diecut leaves from the Bouquet Bunch Framelits and stamped with the little lace image from Touches of Texture:

The sentiment from Bella and Friends were stamped scraps of Whisper White and punched into banners with the Banner Punch!  Same design, three different looks! 

So this is my view this afternoon from my kitchen table (excuse my tissue!):

And I snagged this shot from my friend Deb's FB page....a sad Easter Bunny with frozen tears, lamenting another snowstorm:

Stay safe and warm and be sure to come back tomorrow for a new Inspired By challenge!  Be blessed and enjoy your day!

March Club Projects

Happy Tuesday, everyone!  I am really draggin' today...of course, the gray skies and snow flurries I see out my window might have something to do with that...and the prediction of another nor'easter on its way tomorrow.  That will be #4 for March 2018!!!  And it's the first day of spring!  Anyway, I wanted to share the projects my club participants did this month; I really enjoyed designing them and my stampers seemed to love them too!

Since once of the SAB promotion items is this lovely Springtime Foil DSP, I thought doing an ombre effect with SU's brayers would be fun:

We brayered layers of Blushing Bride, Flirty Flamingo and Calypso Coral on a pane, then added a flower from Flower Shop and punched out with the Pansy Punch, colored with a SU Blend.  The sentiment is from Basket of Wishes, punched with the Tailored Tag punch, and finally, we added a border diecut with the Flourish Thinlet; to make it easier to adhere, it was backed with some Adhesive Sheet, so all we had to do was peel and stick!  And here are a couple of other samples I showed them using the same technique:

For the second set of projects, I went "old school", using the One-Sheet Wonder technique that I learned a long time ago when I first became a demonstrator!  Basically, you stamp a whole sheet of cardstock (in our case, just a half-sheet) randomly to create your own designer paper.  Then we cut it into smaller pieces and made two full-size cards and one note card with our stamped panel:

The set Blooms and Wishes is perfect for this type of project; we used Pool Party, Sweet Sugarplum, So Saffron, Peekaboo Peach, Wisteria Wonder and Soft Sky for a springy palette; the sentiments from the same set (and an additional one from Beautiful Bouquet) were stamped in Basic Gray and all diecut with the Stitched Shapes Framelits:

You can't see it here, but some of the flowers were embellished with a Wink of Stella pen too!  Finally, they learned how to tie a "One-Hole Bow", which is great for keeping your ribbon from slipping off your card.  I did a tutorial for it and you can see it HERE!  And since there is no DSP on these cards, I am entering these in the No Patterned Paper challenge from Cards in Envy!

Ialso made a little gift for my hostess using the Wood Crate Box and the Seasonal Layers Thinlets; my friend Wendy made some really cute Easter-themed ones (you can see them here), but I didn't have any bunnies or chicks or eggs that were current, so I made a spring one with cherry blossoms and a sentiment from Teeny Tiny Wishes:

Phew, are you tired of all the photos?!  Thanks for hanging in there with me!  

About fifty family members and friends from church went bowling on Saturday; it's really tough for wee ones to get that ball down the lane without going in the gutter (I struggle with it too!):

Mommy helped with the ball guide, and a few times we put up the bumpers too:

But that scoring is really the hard part...checking out to see how she did:

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

O Holy Night

Happy Monday, peeps!  Hope you had a great weekend!  At least the sun was shining yesterday here in Pennsylvania!  Not sure about tomorrow, though!  Anyway, I had a wee little bit of stamping time yesterday afternoon and made a Christmas card!  It used the CAS(E) This Sketch sketch and the musical theme from the Jingle Belles:

I recently got this pretty stamp set from CTMH called Prince of Peace; I stamped it with Memento Black ink, diecut it with a stitched circle die and matted it with some silver foil:

I added a horizontal panel of Merry Music DSP from the holiday catalog and another little mat of the foil.  I added a few extra foil stars, and filled in some of the stars on the stamped image with a Zig Painty in silver:

Easy peasy! 

I thought I would share some pictures from a little work project we did on Saturday at our church; we have a fairly large sanctuary with ceilings that are over 20' high.  There are five chandeliers; a large one in the center with sixteen lights, and four smaller ones with twelve lights each. Every year or so, we take them down, wash the globes and replace the bulbs.  Here is John (probably the shortest man in the congregation) on a wooden platform and a 10' ladder, taking down the globes from the center chandelier and putting them in boxes so we can take them downstairs to the kitchen to be washed. Not for the faint of heart!

He finally let Ken (the tallest man in the congregation) take down the smaller ones.  We had a couple young men hold the ladders and give moral support!  Glad it's done for another year!

Have a wonderful day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Prince of Peace (Close to My Heart)
Card stock & Papers	Thick White, Silver Foil, Merry Music DSP (ret)
Ink	Memento Black
Accessories	Silver Zig Painty (ret)
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Shapes Framelits, Layering Circle Framelits, Star Die (Verve)

PP385 A Pop of Rainbow Color

Happy Sunday, everyone!  Nance is our hostess with the mostest at the Paper Players and she has a happy challenge:

Wow, so many possibilities, but I had to remember that it was CLEAN AND SIMPLE!!  I remembered purchasing this Right at Home stamp set at a stamp show a couple of years back, so I dusted it off and stamped it on some white cardstock:

I used the FMS sketch for this week:

and colored in my word; I have to admit, I had a little trouble getting this to ink up nicely...I have lots of fuzzies on it...and my markers are in real need of replacement!!! I am used to using the Blends, and these are well-loved and well-worn!  I didn't use all the rainbow colors, but I think these are close enough:  Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Garden Green and Pacific Point:

I added a little red heart and a washi tape banner, then finally added "when skies are gray" as my horizontal sentiment.  It's a little awkward if you don't read it in the right order, but hopefully the recipient will understand, LOL!  

I hope you'll play along with our rainbow challenge!  I couldn't help thinking that this would have been great for St Patrick's Day---a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!  But the DT has come up with some other awesome ways to use these rainbow colors!  Check them out:

·        Claire

·        Jaydee

·        Joanne

·        Laurie

·        Nance

·        Sandy

·        Elizabeth

·        Annie

·        Jan

Be sure to come and play with us too!  We can't wait to see what you create!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Color In Sentiments (Right at Home)
Card stock & Papers	Thick White, Basic Black, Real Red
Ink	Memento Black, Smoky Slate
Accessories	Pick A Pattern Washi Tape
Tools	Big Shot, Clouds EF (ret), Layering Squares Framelits, 3-Heart Punch (ret), Markers in Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Garden Green and Pacific Point, Dimensionals, Banner Die (Nestabilties)

MTS220 Thinking of You

Happy Friday, everyone!  My birthday card stash is running low, so I pulled out some Delightful Daisy DSP and a sweet floral set called Blooms and Wishes to coordinate with the latest Match the Sketch sketch:

I hope I don't offend anyone by saying that although I love most of the patterns in this DSP series, this particular pattern is not my favorite!  But sometimes I like to challenge myself so that's what I did!  I just got the Diagonal Stripe background stamp, so I stamped a little strip in Smoky Slate for the left vertical panel, then stamped the flower in So Saffron and the leaves in Old Olive, stamped off for a lighter look:

I added an Enamel Glimmer Dot for the center, and added another on the sentiment banner:

Finally, I stamped the inside with a sentiment from Beautiful Day, added another stamped strip and continued the florals, which were stamped off for a softer effect:

 

I am hoping this will make the recipient feel like spring is coming....because you certainly could not tell here in SE PA....our weather reporters said we won't have temps above the mid-40s before April!  Brrrrr!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

A little St Patrick's Viking?????

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Blooms and Wishes, Beautiful Day, Diagonal Stripe
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Smoky Slate, Delightful Daisy DSP
Ink	So Saffron, Old Olive, Smoky Slate, Basic Gray
Accessories	Enamel Glimmer Dots
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Shapes Framelits, Dimensionals

Inspired By 11 Hoppy Easter

Hey peeps!  It's Thursday....almost the end of the week, although my busy-ness keeps going all weekend long, LOL!  Laurel has a beautiful Inspired By challenge prompt this week!  It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do....there are more elements that I would have liked to incorporate, but for now, this is what I came up with:

And here is her inspiration:

I had an almost-empty 6x6 pad of designer paper by My Mind's Eye called Sunshine and it happened to have this soft, pretty gingham page still in it...I must have been "saving" it for an occasion such as this!  I die-cut a pretty little frame, added a sweet little bunny from Close to My Heart:

 

and some florals from Altenew, along with a couple of little banners from the same paper pack and a few sequins:

The sentiment is from the same CTMH set; I also stamped a few very dainty florals directly on to the gingham paper with a little W+9 floral; you can just see them within the frame:

There are so many directions in which you could go with this photo challenge...I hope you're inspired to create something spring-like and share it at IB with us!   We'd love to see what you create!

Just a girl and her dog!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Easter Animals (Close to My Heart), Painted Flowers (Altenew), Freehand Florals (W+9)
Card stock & Papers	Very Vanilla, Lost & Found Sunshine DSP (My Mind's Eye)
Ink	Memento Black, Powder Pink, Blushing Bride, Mint Macaron (ret), Garden Green, Smoky Slate, Flirty Flamingo
Accessories	Sequins
Tools	Big Shot, Lacy Scallop Frame Die (Reverse Confetti), Stitched Borders Die (Lawn Fawn), Aquapainter, Dimensionals