SUOC323 Times Two

Happy Thursday, peeps!  Winding the week down, headed to the weekend!  Did you see the retiring list? And the Color Refresh?  So much info, my head is spinning, and I'm a little sad too!  So hard to see old favorites go!  I'll share a little video at the end of the post about the refresh, so be sure to check it out!  Anyway, I made a couple of cards for the SU Only Challenge, where they are challenging us to recreate one of the cards from page 22 of the mini catalog:

I chose to recreate the card on the right, which features a Mint Macaron base (and which is very sadly retiring....sniff, sniff...just like my favorite Sage Shadow did) and since I really liked the sketch, I made two!  The first one just happened to use Fresh Freesia, which has been growing on me, and happily, is returning:

I took some watercolor paper and colored it with some Fresh Freesia and Mint Macaron inks, then diecut my flowers with the Summer Shadows dies. I was really surprised at how pink the flower came out!!  I used some Fresh Freesia DSP for my circles and stamped Shaded Summer images on the Fresh Freesia card base.  I added a few adhesive sequins too:

Same sketch for the second one; it uses Regency Park DSP and a sentiment from Love For You:

I snipped a few flowers from a leftover scrap and adhered them to a few circular layers, then added a couple of "petals" around the edge, diecut with the Blossoming Happiness dies:

Same sketch but two totally different looks!  Thanks for popping in today!  NOW...here's a link to that fun little Color Refresh video:

Color Refresh

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

RRCB203 A Special Birthday

Happy Wednesday, peeps!  I have a fun, easy birthday card for a special three-year-old at our church, who also happens to be our friends' grandson!  The Retro Rubber challenge is to make a birthday card--how convenient!

I pulled out Number of Years (2016) and Boys Will Be Boys (2014) to make a primary-color card for him:

I diecut squares of Daffodil Delight, Pacific Point and Real Red, then stamped, colored and fussy-cut the legos and yoyo.  The "3" was a diecut from a really old SU called Timeless Type Alphabet Junior (anyone remember that set???) and everything was adhered to some popped-up diecut circles!

On the inside, I used Real Red to stamp the sentiment from Number of Years:

I am hoping he knows his colors and numbers so even if he can't read the words, he'll know it's to celebrate HIM!  Thanks for popping in today!  Enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Number of Years (2016), Boys Will Be Boys (2014)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, DSP in Daffodil Delight, Pacific Point & Real Red
Ink	Real Red
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Stylish Shapes Dies

AHSC518 Hymn Block Sympathy Cards

Happy Tuesday, everyone!  I had a fun night stamping with some of my friends last night!  I may share those cards later!  Today I have two sympathy cards...why do they always seem to come in threes? A sweet church family friend passed away, so I wanted to send a card to her husband and daughter.  I roughly used the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge sketch for them:

I found some beautiful papers from Carta Bella's Gather at Home and Home Again pads and here's what I came up with:

Some of the papers have a woodgrain pattern, which I am interpreting as the horizontal stripes on the sketch, LOL!!  I stamped hymns from the Sweet & Sassy Hymn Blocks set; this one was stamped in Soft Succulent ink, diecut with a stitched square die and matted with some Blushing Bride cardstock. 

I fussy-cut a floral from one of the papers as well:

The second one is simpler and very loosely fits the sketch; different woodgrain, different hymn, different flower:

On the inside of both Soft Succulent cards, I stamped a Bible verse from an old Our Daily Bread Designs:

Thanks so much for popping in today--enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Hymn Blocks (Sweet & Sassy), Scripture Collection 2 (Our Daily Bread Designs)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Soft Succulent, Blushing Bride, Gather at Home DSP, Home Again DSP (both from Carta Bella)
Ink	Soft Suede, Mossy Meadow, Soft Succulent
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Stitched Square Dies (Lil'Inker)

TGIF413 Embossed Vellum

Happy Monday, peeps!  Well, the sun is shining right now....although that will change by this afternoon, I am happy to see it nonetheless!  My card today features vellum, for the TGIF413 challenge to use it!

It's easy to forget about vellum, what with all the pretty cardstock and designer paper we have at our disposal!  SU has some printed vellum in the current catalog, so I decided to combine it with some embossed vellum images to create my card today. First, let me say that I am still on the fence about this card; I rarely combine white and vanilla on a card, but I was trying to go out of my comfort zone and let's just say I'll probably stick to using one of them at a time!  But anyway, here it is:

My base is Soft Seafoam, on which I layered a Very Vanilla panel embossed with the Timeworn Type EF.  I created a little frame with some Pear Pizzazz cardstock and a Scalloped Contour die and put my Layering Designs vellum underneath. I couldn't really see the print with the Vanilla background, so I added another piece of Pear Pizzazz under it, which worked better.

The greenery is from Forever Fern; they're stamped and embossed in white, then diecut with the matching dies.  I created a little tag for my sentiment and added a Rustic Metallic brad as well as some gold thread to "tie" my sprig together:

This is already winging its way to its intended recipient!  Thanks for popping in today!

Our church's missions team held a spaghetti dinner fundraiser on Saturday night complete with entertainment, and it was so much fun! You can just see the top of John's head at our table:

The children of the families going on the trip were the servers, including our pastor's children Lydia, Luke and Micah, in their snazzy "uniforms":

Joshua, the youngest, didn't make it past 8 pm.  As I was helping to tidy up, I noticed the blanket on the couch in the lounge area was rumpled, so as I went to straighten it, I saw a little head and little feet!  He was one tired little boy!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied.  Luke 6:21a

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Forever Fern
Card stock & Papers	Soft Seafoam, Pear Pizzazz, Vellum, Layering Designs Vellum
Ink	Craft White, Pear Pizzazz
Accessories	Dimensionals, Gold Thread (ret), Rustic Metallic Brads, White Embossing Powder
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Scalloped Contour Dies, Forever Flourishing Dies, Tailor Made Tags Dies, Timeword Type Embossing Folder, Heat Tool

PP633 Thinking of You

Happy Sunday, peeps!  Time for a new Paper Players challenge, with Anne Marie as our hostess!  She has a fabulous, fun sketch for us today:

One of my customers and I were talking about shades of green last week and so I decided to embrace those hues!  I had a wee little bit of Dainty Flowers DSP left from SAB, so I pulled out some with predominantly green patterns and went to work:

I began with a Pear Pizzazz card base.  I cut the DSPs with one of the largest Tailor Made Tags dies, then cut another little piece of the end portion of the tag so I could "extend" it, with the seam behimd my sentiment.  I needed a sympathy card, so I stamped my "thinking of you" in Old Olive ink on some retired Naturals White cardstock. I diecut a few little sprigs from Mossy Meadow and Old Olive and adhered them to a circle diecut with the new Radiating Stitches dies.  It kind of reminds me of a little piecrust, don't you think?

I added a simple sentiment on the inside along with an extra little diecut sprig:

It's never easy to make sympathy cards but hopefully this one will bring comfort to the family!  Now, what will you create with Anne Marie's fun sketch?!  I think it's a great way to use up some of those scraps we all seem to accumulate!  Show us what you create over at the Paper Players blog, and be sure to check out the awesome samples from the Design Team as well!  Thanks for popping in today!  Enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Sentiments CL342 (Hero Arts)
Card stock & Papers	Pear Pizzazz,Mossy Meadow, Old Olive, Naturals White (ret), Dainty Flowers (ret)
Ink	Old Olive, Mossy Meadow
Accessories	Linen Thread, Dimensionals, Mossy Meadow Braid (ret)
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Tailor Made Tags Dies, Radiating Stitches Dies, Nature's Thoughts Dies (ret)

Five Little Bunnies

Happy Friday, stamping friends!  Hope you have something fun planned for the weekend!  I have a fun little card for you today, it fulfills three challenges: Just Add Ink's "No Stamping" challenge, CAS Cards & Sketches sketch challenge, and the In(k)spire Me Easter challenge:

I had gotten these Impression Obsession bunny dies after Easter last year so this is the first time I've been able to use them.  They're so darn cute!  I did realize I put my sticker sentiment in not quite the correct place for the sketch, but hopefully the challenge gurus will be flexible!  So here we go:

I had to orient my card in landscape mode to fit all these bunnies on!  The Sweet Sorbet gingham patterns from Country Gingham DSP was a great way to use up some scraps! I made sure each one was 5/8" in width, then simply popped up the bunnies at the bottom.  The hardest part of the card was snipping all the mini dimensionals to fit!

Since the JAI challenge is no stamping, I used some Tim Holtz stickers for my sentiment!

Thanks for visiting today!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Country Gingham DSP
Ink
Accessories	Mini Dimensionals, Chitchat Seasonal Stickers (Tim Holtz)
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Bunny Buddies Dies (Impression Obsession)

HSS410 Hand-Penned Petals

Happy Thursday, peeps!  The weekend is almost upon us....bringing rain, rain, rain!  Well, I guess it will be a good time to stay inside and stamp!  I had Hand Penned Petals on my desk from another project and thought it would be good to use with the color challenge from Hand Stamped Sentiments this week as well as the sketch from FMS:

So here we go:

This is such a pretty image, I am not sure why I haven't used it more!  After stamping and diecutting the image, I mounted it on a Basic White panel diecut with the new Radiating Stitches die that was sponged with some Balmy Blue ink.  A wee bit of Fresh Freesia DSP formed a mat, and I did some paper piecing of various strips of Balmy Blue DSP to create the horizontal piece.

The sentiment is from Happiness Abounds.  I have another friend getting knee surgery today and I may send this to her as an encouragement card!  Thanks for visiting today!  Enjoy it and be blessed!

The heavesn declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.  Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.  There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.  Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.  Psalm 19:1-4

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Happiness Abounds, Hand-Penned Petals, Friends are Like Seashells (speckles)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Fresh Freesia DSP, Balmy Blue DSP, Country Gingham DSP
Ink	Memento Black, Fresh Freesia, Balmy Blue, Pearl Pizzazz
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Penned Flowers Dies, Radiating Stitched Dies, Blending Brush

CTD735 Guest Designer

Happy Wednesday, everyone!  I am excited to be playing along with the Color Throwdown team today as a Guest Designer!  Color Throwdown was my very first design team and I always had such a great time! Here is their color palette for this week:

These colors seemed masculine to me, but I wanted to go in a different direction, so I pulled out some older Authentique papers featuring this vintage image in navy, then went to work:

I added a Chocolate Chip frame, diecut with a new SU die called Radiating Stitches, positioned so that it framed the floral image.

I stamped a butterfly from Butterfly Basics, punched it out with the matching punch, and mounted it on a piece of Cajun Craze, also diecut with a circular Radiating Stitches die:

A Charming Sentiments sentiment was heat embossed with some white ink and powder, then diecut and added to the frame.  Some twill ribbon and enamel dots finished it off.

Since I had the inside portion of the frame sitting on my desk, I used it for the inside, added a Night of Navy butterfly, a little sentiment and diecut heart:

I have a friend who is going to be having some surgery soon, so this will be in the mail to her!  

I hope you'll play along with the CTD colors this week!  Share them over at the CTD blog!  Thanks for visiting today--enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Charming Sentiments, Butterfly Basics (ret), Tiny Tags Messages (Our Daily Bread Designs)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Cajun Craze, Chocolate Chip (ret), Genuine DSP (Authentique)
Ink	Cajun Craze, Night of Navy, Craft White
Accessories	Dimensionals, Cinnamon Cider Ribbon (ret), Enamel Dots (from my stash)
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Radiating Stitches Dies, Charming Sentiments Dies, Stylish Shapes Dies, Small Butterfly Punch (ret), White Embossing Powder, Heat Tool

Peekaboo Bunny Fun Fold Card

Happy Tuesday, peeps!  I had a good time yesterday doing some "fun folds" with a few of my stampers, and one of the folds I shared was Julie Dimatteo's Double Diamond fold.  You can see her tutorial HERE, and the first card I created using it HERE.  I decided to make a cute little Easter bunny card in some Blushing Bride hues, so here we go:

The outer squares were covered with some Blushing Bride DSP, then we added a cute diecut peekaboo bunny (Poppy Stamps) and some eggs from the retired Basket Builder dies.  The Basic White paper was backed with an Adhesive sheet so that it would be easier to attach:

The inside panel was stamped with some eggs and sentiment from a Paper Pumpkin 2017 set:

This was a wee bit challenging, but I think they liked it!  And I am going to enter this over at Debbie's Creative Creases Anything Goes with a Fun Fold challenge!

Thanks for popping in today!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Paper Pumpkin (March 2017, ret)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Blushing Bride, Blushing Bride DSP, Adhesive Sheets
Ink	Blushing Bride
Accessories
Tools	Cut & Embossing Machine, Stylish Shapes Dies, Layering Squares Dies (ret), Basket Builder Dies (ret), Peekaboo Bunny Dies (Poppy Stamps)