AYSI255 Quiet Meadow

Happy Friday, everyone!  Time for a new As You See It challenge...look at these gorgeous colors!  Very fall-like but still could be used for summer images as well!

I hadn't really played with Quiet Meadow too much, so I thought the floral image in this set would be perfect for these colors!  First, I embossed (twice) a Very Vanilla card base with the Greenery embossing folder.  I then stamped a Cajun Craze panel with the script image; I used my good old stamp positioner to get straight lines!  

I stamped the floral image in Stazon then watercolored it in with the challenge colors and cut it out with a Stitched Rectangle die:

I used the Try Stampin on Tuesday sketch for my layout:

And I diecut a piece of Crushed Curry using two of the Ornate Borders dies for my horizontal piece.  I am wondering if it is a bit too fussy for my image, but it's already glued down, LOL!  I added some gold metallic pearls on the ends as well as on the corners of my stamped image.  The sentiment is from Friends are Like Seashells and diecut with the retired Stitched Shapes die: 

I can't wait to see what you create with our challenge colors this week!  Be sure to check out what the designers created, then share yours as well!  See you at As You See It!  Thanks for popping in today!

Aquarium fun!
 

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

"So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind.  And God saw that it was good." Genesis 1:21

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Friends are Like Seashells, Quiet Meadow
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry
Ink	Stazon, Crushed Curry, Calypso Coral, Cajun Craze, Garden Green
Accessories	Gold Metallic Pearls, Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Rectangle Dies, Greenery Embossing Folder, Ornate Layers Dies, Stitched Shapes Dies (ret), Stampamajig (ret)

FMS495 Grad Card

Happy Thursday, peeps! I have a quick card that I made for an upcoming graduation!  The young man's school colors are maroon and white, so I used them and the sketch from FMS:

So here we go:

This is actually a note-card sized card, as I didn't have ANY graduation cap stamps except this wee little one from a past Paper Pumpkin kit, so I just decided to size it down to fit!  I embossed the front with a star embossing folder and the diagonal panel with the new Checks embossing folder, then added the year with diecut foam letters:

I added a Basic Black stitched mat around each one and added a "congratulations" stamp on the inside!  I know he'll appreciate it but will probably be more appreciative of the gift inside!  Thanks for visiting today!

Cassidy with a (pretend) penguin:

and Dana and Cassidy with REAL ones!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Paper Pumpkin (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Basic Black, Merry Merlot, Foam Sheet
Ink	Merry Merlot
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Checks EF, Star EF (ret), 3/4" Circle Punch, Stitched Labels Dies (ret), Little Numbers Dies (ret)

CAS Twinchie Poinsettia

Happy Wednesday, peeps!  Halfway through the week!  There are lots of Christmas challenges out there, so I am throwing my hat in the ring for a few of them!  SUO wants Christmas in July; CAS Christmas wants a poinsettia; and AAA Cards wants a "twinchie" with the option of Christmas! 

So here we go:

I began by diecutting a mini poinsettia from Poppy Parade cardstock using the smallest Poinsettia dies.  I gave it a bit of shading with some Real Red ink, offsetting two layers together.  The Garden Green leaves are from the same die, and I used some gold Glimmer paper from a past Holiday mini catalog a few years back for the center.  It went on a panel of Basic White that I ran diagonally through the retired Basketweave embossing folder:  

The "twinchie" can't be any bigger than 2", with nothing over the edge, so when I stamped my sentiment from the retired Seasonal Chums set, I cut it out with a Tasteful Labels die, then ran it through again to shorten it so it would fit within the 2" requirement.  I used the same Glimmer paper to create a scalloped frame to finish it off.  It all went on a plain Basic White card front!  Another for my Christmas card stash, and my Christmas club girls just might see this one some time because I really like how it came out!  Thanks for popping in today!

Yesterday at dusk I came home from a meeting and the sun was SO RED in the hazy sky, I just had to stop and take a picture.  It's not very clear, but hopefully you can get the picture!  My nephew told me it was reflecting the fires on the west coast!!

Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Seasonal Chums (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Garden Green, Poppy Parade, Gold Glimmer Paper (ret)
Ink	Garden Green, Real Red
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Tasteful Labels Dies, Poinsettia Dies, Layering Squares Dies (ret), Stitched Shapes Dies (Ret), Basketweave Embossing Folder (ret), 1/4" Circle Punch, Sponge Daubers

RRCB163

Hi stampers!  Tuesday brings us a new Retro Rubber challenge, where we give some love to our older stamps!  This week we have a tic-tac-toe for you:

Unfortunately, I needed another sympathy card for my daughter's cousins who lost their dad recently.  I chose the top row across of masculine, square and mechanical, using an older Artistic Outpost stamp set called The Outpost, which is probably ten years old:

I stamped the image in Soft Suede on some Naturals White cardstock and sponged in some color to give it a bit more depth.  The mat is stamped with a script stamp from the same set and it was distressed by dabbing a Sahara Sand ink pad directly on the paper, then fraying the edges with the edge of my acrylic ruler.  I mounted it on a piece of woodgrain DSP and added a sympathy sentiment from Hero Arts (I've had it for years) stamped on Crumb Cake and diecut with a banner die:

I hope you come play with our tic-tac-toe board this week...it's got a bit of a masculine vibe to it and we all know those are the most challenging cards to create, so take advantage of the ideas on the board!  Just be sure to use stamps that are at least a year old and tell us how old they are!  See you at Retro Rubber!

Shark alert!

Thanks for visiting!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

 "In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps."  Proverbs 16:9

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	The Outpost (Artistic Outpost), Sentiments (Hero Arts CL342)
Card stock & Papers	Crumb Cake, Naturals White, Nestled DSP (Authentique)
Ink	Sahara Sand, Bordering Blue (ret)
Accessories	Candy Dot (ret), Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Banners Dies (Nestabilities)

IMC453 Shaded Summer

Happy Tuesday, peeps!  I am squeaking in this challenging card just shy of the deadline!  It's for the In(k)spire Me challenge, and I challenged myself to use both the sketch and the colors!  Here we go:

I wanted to use the Shaded Summer stamp set because one of the upcoming SAB items is a matching die!  How exciting!  But as I said, I did find these colors a bit of a challenge to use together, but I finally ended up with this:

I stamped the floral image in Crumb Cake and used the dies to cut it out, then stamped it again in Merry Merlot and Polished Pink and cut out the flowers and popped them up on a Dots-embossed panel with some Pale Papaya ribbon behind it.  I mounted that on a Pale Papaya scalloped die as well:

I stamped a sentiment from the same set and embellished it with one of the little sprigs from the same set and everything went on a Crumb Cake mat embossed with the Tasteful Textile embossing folder. 

For a little extra bling, I added a few sequins from Sequins for Everything; in the photo they look red, but in real life, they match the larger flower nicely!  Now to send it off in the mail!  

Thanks for popping in today--be sure to stop back in a few hours for a new Retro Rubber challenge too!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Shaded Summer
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Crumb Cake, Pale Papaya
Ink	Merry Merlot, Crumb Cake, Polished Pink
Accessories	Pale Papaya Open Weave Ribbon, Sequins for Everything, Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Tasteful Textile EF, Scalloped Contour Dies, Summer Shadows Dies (upcoming SAB)

ICC095 Sympathy

Happy Monday, peeps! Hope you had a good weekend!  Thankfully it cooled down a bit...we didn't even turn on the A/C yesterday!  Sadly, I needed a sympathy card this week.  My cousin Nancy, who lives in Venice, FL, lost her husband on Friday.  He was a pretty special guy; they started Challenger Baseball in Venice so that physically-challenged children could play ball.  I only met him a couple of times and never really had a chance to talk to him about it, but he was well-loved by many members of the community.  You can see a little news clip here, and if you're on Facebook, can look up Richard E Carroll to see lots of pictures (that will cause you to tear up, guaranteed), including the amazing Christmas village they set up each year that thousands of people would drive through to see!  So, all that to say, I created a baseball-themed sympathy card for his family:

The baseball gear is all from a retired SU set called Have a Ball, and the sentiment is from a Hero Arts sentiment assortment; papers are from my stash.

I used the great sketch from Inspire.Create as well:

Thanks for visiting today!

A little beachy fun:

LOL, Wayne looks like a real sailor!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

"Who is wise?  He will realize these things.  Who is discerning?  He will understand them.  The ways of the Lord are right; the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them."  Hosea 14:9

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Have a Ball (ret), Sentiments (Hero Arts CL342)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Frontier DSP (Authentique), Stars & Stripes (unknown)
Ink	Real Red, Crumb Cake, Cinnamon Cider
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Shapes Dies (ret)

PP550 Bee Happy

Hi stampers!  Happy Sunday!  I am the hostess at the Paper Players and it's a clean and simple challenge:

The hardest part of creating this card was deciding WHICH bee stamp to use, as I have lots of them!  I love bees!  In the end, I combined several images and used the sketch from Just Add Ink:

So here we go:

I started with a plain Basic White card base and stamped the honeycomb image from an older My Favorite Things set called Distressed Background Blocks in Bumblebee ink at the bottom,  The main bee is from SU's Honey Bee set, stamped in Stazon ink and colored with markers; I diecut it out and added some Wink of Stella to the wings and a gem to the body:

The "B" with the crown and happy sentiment are from a really old Cornish Heritage Farms set called Sweet Bee; the crown was also stamped in Stazon, colored with markers and a gold Wink of Stella pen, then fussy cut.  The happy was stamped in Bumble bee and diecut with a banner dies.  For fun, I stamped a sentiment from Best Year and another bee from Honey Bee, along with some "trails" from a CTMH set called Stitched Borders:

And since the Krafty Chicks challenge is CAS this week, I'm going to pop this in there as well!  I just can't help myself when stamping bees....I want to put them everywhere!  I hope you'll find some bee images and create a clean-and-simple card for our challenge this week!  Be sure to check out what the designers created at the Paper Players, then share yours with us too!

And speaking of bees, I caught this busy one as I was leaving my library yesterday:

There was a whole bed of these echinaceas...they were beautiful! And so were all the bees on them!  Thanks for popping in today--enjoy it and be blessed!

"Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones."  Proverbs 16:24

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Best Year, Honey Bee (ret), Distressed Background Blocks (My Favorite Things), Sweet Bee (Cornish Heritage Farms), Stitched Borders Essentials (Close to My Heart)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White
Ink	Stazon Black, Bumblebee, Sahara Sand
Accessories	In Color Gem, Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Detailed Bee Dies (ret), Markers in So Saffron and Crushed Curry, Wink of Stella, Gold Wink of Stella (ret)