CTS385 Birthday for Cassidy

 It is really hard to wrap my head around the fact that my granddaughter will be TEN on Monday!  Where did those years go?  Last year she decided she did not like girly, frilly things--no pinks, no lace, no sparkle---boohoo.  Definitely a tomboy!  SO, for her card this year, I pulled out SU's Camouflage background stamp (cuz she loves camo!) and used the simple sketch from CTS for her birthday card!  First, the card:

This went together in a snap...I stamped the camo in Soft Seafoam on Sahara Sand, and the sentiments from A Grand Kid were stamped in Pear Pizzazz and diecut with a zig-zag circle die.  I didn't quite space the sentiments the way I wanted, so I added the little diagonal strip from Jar of Flowers between the two:

A couple more cute sentiments (and another diagonal strip to pull it all together) on the inside, and it was done, ready for ten $1 bills to go inside!

She's having a little pizza and pool party today---not many kids are allowed to come, so it will be small, but she'll still have fun!  Thanks for popping in! And no pictures today but hopefully I will get some from the party!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

AYSI232 Rustic Sunflowers

Hi there, everyone!  Today we have a new As You See It challenge, and it's a wonderful color challenge!  Check out this lovely inspiration:

 

I knew just what I was going to use for this challenge as soon as I saw it!  I pulled out the Jar of Flowers stamp set and inked up the sunflowers in brown Stazon ink (which is FINALLY available!) and went to work:

After watercoloring it with ink and an aquapainter, I fussy-cut it out and mounted it on a white panel that had been embossed with the Tin Tile EF and layered on a piece of Gilded Autumn Specialty DSP and a Crushed Curry mat: 

The Gilded Autumn paper has some lovely shimmery accents so I added some new Metallic Ribbon to coordinate.  And I added a sentiment from Here's a Card, stamped in Cajun Craze and accented with a little flourish from Banner Year, diecut with a die from Tasteful Labels:

The base of the card is Bermuda Bay, and before running in through the Pinewood Planks embossing folder, I inked the inside surface of the folder with Smoky Slate ink.  I love the vintage look it created!  And the sketch I used is from Try Stampin on Tuesday:

I think this photo inspiration is a great segue to making some lovely fall creations...it certainly inspired me, I hope it does you too!  Can't wait to see what you create...share them with us at As You See It!  Thanks for popping in!

I have a few more birthday cards that came in the mail:

From Ann:

From Shawn, along with the back of her envelope (she knows my rebellious nature!!!):

From Darlene:

and here's how it folds...I love this so much, I've already made a couple myself!

and all the way from Germany, from my friend Claudia:

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Jar of Flowers, Here's A Card, Banner Year
Card stock & Papers	Watercolor, Bermuda Bay, Crushed Curry, Whisper White, Gilded Autumn Specialty Paper
Ink	Brown Stazon, Smoky Slate, Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry, Bumblebee, Bermuda Bay
Accessories	Dimensionals, Metallic Ribbon
Tools	Big Shot, Pinewood Planks EF, Tin Tile EF, Aquapainter, 1/8" Hole Punch

IB136 Sleepy Bear

Happy Thursday, peeps! Time for a sweet inspiration for the Inspired By challenge!  Check out these cute little critters and the optional sketch:

If this look a bit familiar, I posted this last week by mistake, then had to take it down!  It's all good now!  I admit I struggled a bit with this card; those critters are adorable, but I don't really have many stamps remotely close!  I did remember this cute little bear from a CTMH set, (he sort of makes me think that's he's taking a wee little nap!) so I stamped him in some Antique Linen Distress Ink and colored him with my Blends for a no-line watercolored look:

Since the image was small, I made it into a notecard.  He was stamped on Very Vanilla and punched out with a tag punch, then mounted on another tag from some MFT gingham paper.  I used my last piece of Pink Pirouette cardstock to create the card, stamped and embossed the front of it and added a little blue banner.  The velveteen ribbon was threaded through a star clip and adhered to the top:

I didn't have a need for a baby card, so I stamped "Just Thinking of You"....I figured that is a generic-enough sentiment that I could put an occasion sentiment on the inside. 

And, true to my methods, the above card was not the first one I made.  I also made this card, using another CTMH stamp, but I had a really had time getting a good stamped image with this large stamp.  I tried several different colors and in the end, had the best luck with Sahara Sand:

Even with the Stamparatus, I still struggled to get a clean image....so she's a bit of a fuzzy bear!

I stamped the sentiment and hearts directly on to a piece of Felicity paper from BoBunny in Cinnamon Cider:

and I used another piece of the MFT gingham paper for the bottom portion, stamping some flowers on it, a scalloped Crumb Cake border, and added a piece of satin ribbon!  

So happy you popped in today!  Be sure to check out what the Inspired By DT created...and hopefully you'll find something that inspires you to create something too!  Share it with us at the IB blog!  And thanks for stopping by today!

First Card Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Many Mates, Woodland Greetings (Close to My Heart)
Card stock & Papers	Very Vanilla, Pink Pirouette (ret), Homespun Gingham (My Favorite Things), Misc scrap
Ink	Crumb Cake, Antique Linen (Tim Holtz)
Accessories	Velveteen Ribbon (ret), All is Bright Paper Clips (ret), Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Perfect Polka Dot EF (ret), Tag Punch (ret), Scalloped Tag Topper Punch, Blends in Ivory, Light Crumb Cake and Pink Pirouette (ret), Triple Corner Punch, Soft Suede Marker

Second Card Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Bear Hugs (Close to My Heart)
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, Felicity (Bo Bunny), Homespun Gingham (My Favorite Things)
Ink	Sahara Sand, Crumb Cake, Cinnamon Cider
Accessories	Petal Pink Ribbon (ret), Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Scallop Border Die (Close to My Heart), Blushing Bride Marker

GDP253 Times Two

Happy Wednesday, peeps!  I have a couple of cards today, both use the colors from the current Global Design Project challenge:

 

I happened to see a free digital image offered on the FB page of the Coffee Loving Papercrafters, so I printed it out and was just playing around with one of the images using the challenge colors.  Other than the fact that my Blends bled a wee bit, it turned out pretty good, so I fussy cut it out and made this card:

The green cup was colored with Granny Apple Green Blends; the coral cup was colored with Calypso Coral markers, and the white cup was dotted with a So Saffron Blend.  I fussy cut the words from the sentiment as well and mounted everything on a stitched rectangle embossed with a polka dot embossing folder:

The sketch I used is from Tuesday Morning Sketches:

The second card uses the Ornate Garden Specialty DSP, on which I colored several of the flowers and leaves with Blends; they are outlined in gold embossing, so they're quite easy to color in:

I added some Gold Foil borders, Calypso Coral embossing and Granny Apple Green DSPs; the sentiment is from Seaside Notions:

And this sketch is from Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge:

Thanks so much for popping in today!

I don't think I had shared this on my blog, but a couple of weeks ago I woke up to find my sunflowers pretty much decimated:

Some were bitten off altogether and strewn in the flower bed and yard; 

some were just nibbled on:

On my FB page, suggestions were raccoons (my thought), deer and squirrels.  We managed to see the culprit a few days later:

I haven't been filling my feeders because the squirrels clean them out in a day....so the sunflower seeds were the next best thing!  Well, I didn't plant them...they seeded themselves from the same feeders, so I guess I can't complain!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

First Card Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Digital
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Bumblebee DSP, Computer Paper
Ink
Accessories	Dimensionals, Enamel Dots, Calypso Coral Ribbon (both ret)
Tools	Printer, Big Shot, Stitched Rectangle Dies, Perfect Polka Dot EF (ret), Blends, Markers,

Second Card Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Seaside Notions
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Calypso Coral, Gold Foil, Granny Apple Green DSP, Ornate Garden Specialty DSP
Ink	Calypso Coral
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Hearts Dies, Ornate Floral EF, Blends

RRCB141 Anything Goes

Happy Tuesday, everyone!  I took a little break yesterday but I am back today with a new Retro Rubber challenge, where we ask you to give some love to your older stamps!  This week we have an Anything Goes challenge:

 

I pulled out one of my favorite SU stamps ever ever ever, Garden Pleasures from 2001.  I just love the detailed artwork on these stamps!  I stamped the birdhouse in Stazon Black on some watercolor paper and watercolored it in with ink and an aquapainter:

After coloring it, I fussy-cut it out, then stamped it again on a stitched circle and popped it up on some dimensionals.  Before doing that, I colored in the sky with some Soft Sky ink and sponged the edges to give it an vintage look:

The sketch that I used is from Inkspire Me, and I used papers from Graphic 45's Botanical Tea 6x6 pad, diecut with a stitched rectangle die:

After embellishing the front with some seam binding and a couple of candy dots, I stamped two more images at the bottom of the inside, along with a sentiment from the same set and a sentiment from Woven Heirlooms, stamped over a straw hat:

So happy that you stopped in today, and I hope that you'll play along with our Retro Rubber challenge over at the RR blog!  Just make sure your stamp is at least a year old, and be sure to tell us the age in your post!  Can't wait to see what you create!

Over the weekend, John, his sister and her husband and I all went tubing down the Tulpehocken Creek west of Reading, PA.   Of course, we just had a hurricane on Wednesday, and Friday evening it rained again, so we were concerned about the water...would it be fast, high, muddy, etc?  It was perfect and we spent three lazy hours just drifting down the little stream!  I only took photos at the beginning, as we couldn't take our phones with us:

It was a blast!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Woven Heirlooms, Garden Pleasures (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Watercolor, Naturals White (ret), Botanical Tea DSP (Graphic 45)
Ink	Stazon Black, Balmy Blue, Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, So Saffron, Pear Pizzazz, Soft Sky (ret)
Accessories	Candy Dots, Soft Sky Seam Binding (both ret)
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Shapes Dies, Layering Circles Dies, Sponge Dauber, Aquapainter

PP503 Hello Beautiful

Happy Sunday, peeps!  Hope your weekend is going well so far!  Joanne is our fabulous hostess this week at the Paper Players, and she is really challenging us!  Check out this amazing color palette:

When I want to create a card with multiple colors like this, I usually choose small images in the same shape or size; but I went a wee bit different this time!  I used the butterflies from Butterfly Gala, stamping them in Night of Navy and using the other challenge colors to fill them in.  Here we go:

I began with the FMS sketch for this week:

I had a strip of  Pool Party DSP lying on my desk and I found a cool embossed cover plate panel that my sweet friend Michele gave me, so I combined the two, layering the cover plate over the polka dots with some dimensionals.  I stamped several butterflies and punched them out with the matching punch and adhered them along the opening:

    

The sentiment is from the same set, stamped on a Stitched Shape square, and I added a couple more butterflies and embellished it with some Blue Adhesive-Backed Gems:

On the inside, I stamped a sentiment from Little Treats and added a few more butterflies that I had left over!

This is such a fun, cheerful color combination! I hope you'll be able to find something to stamp with these colors!  Check out what all the other designers did at the Paper Players, then share yours with us too!  Thanks so much for popping in today!

Last weekend at my niece's surprise birthday party, Sawyer wanted to see her goats!  He said they tickled his hand!!!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Butterfly Gala
Card stock & Papers	Whisper White, Pool Party DSP
Ink	Night of Navy, Melon Mambo, Mango Melody, Pool Party
Accessories	Blue Adhesive Gems, Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Shapes Dies, Butterfly Duo Punch, Cover Plate (gift)