Boats and Trucks

Edited to add: Well, this is NOT a car, so I changed my title to Boats and Trucks! LOL!

Well, I am off baby things and on to more masculine things! Once again, my masculine birthday card file is seriously depleted, so I thought I should replenish it. The Diva Coffee Break challenge was a color one, and although I think it is supposed to be SU only, I cheated and used an Artistic Outpost set called Home. First, here are the colors:

Love them! Now on to the creation:

I have to tell you, the Bashful Blue threw me off....it just didn't fit in THIS card---in the sample, it looks great, but....I grunged it up with some Sahara Sand ink and you can barely tell it's there! I had no Artichoke taffeta ribbon, so I dyed some Kraft ribbon by running it over my Always Artichoke stamp pad, then drying it with my heat tool. Tada---Artichoke ribbon! This is also for the Rubbernecker Wacky Wednesday challenge, which is to use ovals on our card. I used oval and scalloped oval punches here.

Now on to the boat! I made this a couple days ago for the SCS color challenge, which was Baja Breeze and Ruby Red. I had this image stamped a long time ago when visiting my stampin' buddy Shawn, so I pulled it out and watercolored it quickly:

I love how easy it is to watercolor on Shimmery White cardstock! I am sad that this set is retiring! Thanks for visiting today!

• Car card stamps: Expressive Flexible Phrases, (retired SU), Home, Artistic Outpost
• Paper: Kraft, Bashful Blue, Night of Navy, VV, Patterns DP
• Ink: Always Artichoke, Night of Navy
• Acc: Oval Punch, Oval Scallop Punch, Piercing Tool, Button, Twill, Always Artichoke Marker, Sahara Sand marker, Kraft Taffeta

• Boat card stamps: Boatloads of Love
• Paper: Baja Breeze, Ruby Red, Shimmery White
• Ink: Stazon, Baja Breeze, Ruby Red
• Acc: Grosgrain, Star Punch, brads dimensionals, aquapainter

Color Throwdown #47

Wow, Danielle picked some great colors for this week's challenge:  Cameo Coral, Tempting Turquoise and Kiwi Kiss, or lime green. 

I was contrary and chose Green Galore, and you'll see why in a second!  Let's see what summery confections you can concoct with these colors!  Post your creation on your blog or an online gallery, use the keyword CTD47, and come on back to the Color Throwdown blog and link the exact address to good old Mr Linky.  You could even be lucky enough to be chosen our Featured Stamper and a Guest Designer!!!

I searched and searched my DP stash to find something that matched these colors--then I remember the Birthday Kit I won from Taylored Expressions on Laura Frederick's blog! Perfecto---see why I used the Green Galore? I seem to be on a baby card kick this week, so I made another to add to my stash, this time using an upcoming SU set, Animal Stories.  And believe me, you will ONLY see this kind of elephant in a story:

I based my sketch on Sketch 99 from Sketches! {by tamara} after seeing Barbara's lovely card there:

My little Ellie was stamped in Tempting Turquoise, with Cameo Coral flowers from Flight of the Butterfly and hand-drawn stems and grass in Green Galore marker.  The sentiment is from Nursery Necessities, punched and layered.   I just had to get rid of that "vacant" eye, so I filled it in with a black marker and gave her some eyelashes too!!!  She was diecut with a Nesties Label #4 and popped up as well.  Some ribbon from Mike's and even some stamping and embellishing on the inside:

 

finish off the card.  And there are tiny little blingy rhinestones on the flower centers, too!

 

 

 

So let's take a peek at what the other designers came up with this week:

• Broni - Splashes of Watercolor
• Tammy - Stamp Happy
• Cathy - Crafty Thoughts
• Barbara - Paper Pursuits
• Danielle – Wild Dragonfly Designs

Now go stamp something!!!

• Stamps:  Animal Stories, Nursery Necessities, Flight of the Butterfly
• Paper:  WW, Green Galore, Cameo Coral, Doodlebug Design DP
• Ink:  Cameo Coral, Tempting Turquoise
• Acc:  Markers, Michael's ribbon, Oval Punch, Scallop Oval Punch, Nesties Label 4, Curly Label Punch, Dimensionals, Bling

Oh Baby Baby!

Last week's Color Throwdown card was a baby card for a boy; you might remember I made that card for a family from our church in the hopes that they might actually have a girl....and guess what!  They did have a girl!  Grace Elizabeth arrived on June 13--what a happy day for everyone!

So off I went to make a little girl card...so many ideas floating in my head, and I still haven't sent this one out because I am still not sure of it:

I feel like it is a little busy, what with the two different DPs and all.  I had to have this DP, I think it is from October Afternoon, and have hardly used it at all. It features some vintage designs that appealed to me, which is great for scrapping, maybe not so applicable for cards.  Anyway, I am still thinking on this one.....the image is from Puns from the Past, sentiment is PTI Mixed Messages.  Because of the busy-ness, my stamping is minimal.  I added some satin and gingham ribbon as well as a little button and bow, and it was done.  Let me know what you think!  I really need to get it in the mail!

Meanwhile, some of my customers have really amped up their mojo (hi Beth) and continue to amaze me with their talent:

Isn't this sweet?  I am filing that ribbon/oval treatment in my head for future CASEing reference!  And look how nice the envelope and the inside are stamped:

 

I treasure all these wonderful beauties!

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by today and don't forget that tomorrow is the CTD challenge!

• Stamps:  Puns from the Past, Mixed Messages, PTI
• Paper:  Pretty in Pink, Mellow Moss, Barely Banana, Naturals Ivory, October Afternoon DP
• Ink:  Close to Cocoa
• Acc:  Gingham & Satin Ribbons, Nesties, CB Tag Diecut,  Button, string, sponge dauber

Challenge Monday

I had a chance to stamp a couple things this morning, not all of them I am sharing quite yet!  But here are a couple fun ones:

This is for the Clean and Simple challenge on SCS, which is a sketch, and also for Dawn McVey's Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #9, shown here:

Now, I don't have Grass Green, but I have Kiwi Kiss, and that's what I used for my CAS card:

This color is just so hard to photograph!  Anyway, here it is in all its Kiwi Kiss glory; images are from Flight of the Butterfly, sentiment from Short & Sweet.  Cardstock is Basic Black and Very Vanilla.  Ribbon is SU's Pigtails and Valet....that was the last of them, they're all gone now!

Next, I was a very bad aunt and had not made my nephew a graduation card yet.  He wasn't having a party, so it wasn't on my radar screen!  A friend had given me a mortarboard cap template, (I also found it here on SCS) so I made him this one:

His school colors are red, black & silver; when you open the card, there is a pocket for a gift card or cash (hard to see here):

and I added a Bible verse on the inside flap:

Sentiment is from Hugs and Wishes; Bible verse is from CHF's Scripture Essentials 1--love this set, wish I had gotten it sooner!  Some silver stars added a little interest.  Of course, the check we enclosed will interest him the most! LOL!  I made the tassel from red embroidery floss.

Thanks for looking!  Tomorrow will be a new baby card.....hint, hint!!!

Sunglasses and Umbrellas

You'd better put your sunglasses on...this umbrella is bright! For Karen's "The Sweetest Thing" sketch challenge today, I pulled out several BG Euphoria papers. Lots of bright colors and patterns make for a LOUD card:

I discovered that Melon Mambo matched these papers perfectly! Really not much to it except for the thank you from retiring Seeing Spots, and the umbrella from PTI's Scattered Showers. Card base is Bashful Blue, ink is Baja Breeze and Melon Mambo, along with some MM dotted ribbon and some dew drops! I did accent the flowers with a jelly roll pen.

Yesterday was my niece's graduation party---it poured rain, but we had fun anyway! She loves Burt's Bees products, and I happened to find a little assortment on sale, so I thought a little pizza box would be fun, especially since I am continuing on my "bee" kick! So I stamped The Bee List and colored it in:

Made a little pizza box (you can find the directions at SCS here) with SU's new Crushed Curry - an awesome color for bee stuff - and added some Recycled K&Co DP:

and plopped in the Burt's Bees:

and then wrapped it up and added a couple little embellishments:

She loved it! She is leaving next Saturday to go to Africa for a month on a Mercy Ship, and then will return home to begin nursing school in late August. She has always exhibited a caring heart, not only for the physically sick, but the spiritually needy as well. We can't wait to see what God brings her way!

Cupcake Inspiration

(This is a bit of a long post, but be sure to check out the last paragraph and check out the last link for a chuckle!)

This past week I have really been checking out the challenges at SCS; I used to look at them all the time, then stopped; now it seems I have been drawn to them again.  There are SO many challenges out in the blogging world that one just cannot do them all, so I have stepped back and am just stamping for the fun of it!

I was always intriqued when I checked a challenge in the morning and found some entries had lots and lots of comments already.  I thought, wow, they must get up at 4 am to make their cards.  And there are actually people up, reading and looking and their cards!  Duh.  I now realize that many times, challenges are posted late the night before.  I guess lots of people know this---I did not!  And because I had a sinus headache and couldn't sleep, I was still up when the Inspiration Challenge was posted here.  There are some very creative packaging ideas out there!  So quick like a bunny (as quickly as one can at 11:30 with a sinus headache) I came up with this card based on this inspiration:

This would HAVE to be inspired by something because I would never put all these color together like this!  In fact, I have no idea for what occasion I would even use this card---maybe DD's birthday!  DH would scratch his head in wonderment if I sent it to him!!!  But I thought it was kind of fun and funky.  Maybe it was the headache talking to me!

On another note, at last night's party, I had asked my stampers to bring a child's birthday card for Cards For Heroes.  My good friend Robyn brought two cards like this:

 

 

 

 

 

When you pull on the tab at the top, you get this:

 

 

 

 

 

The balloons and the string pop up with the insert!  This is so cute, I just love this concept!  And I know some children are going to love these too!  Thanks, Robyn!

 

 

On a final funny note, you have GOT to check out this post from Australian SU demo, Makeesha Byl.  Just scroll down to the end......you will CRACK UP!!!  If your kids are driving you nuts, this will put it all into perspective!!!  Have a great day--it is grad party day for my sweet niece and it looks like the weather will hold, so it should be fun!  Thanks for visiting!

Stampin' in Your Sleep

I had a little stamp party tonight, just sort of a "last hurrah" for the retiring sets.  We only had four stampers, plus a guest daughter stamper, but we had lots of fun!  I don't even have photos of the cards to show, but I did something that I don't normally do at my clubs or workshops, and that is play games!  I got a list of games from SCS and one they suggested was "Stampin' In Your Sleep".  You form teams and help a blindfolded stamper "stamp" something--supposedly just by talking her through it!!!  It was really fun and I am sure we broke the rules, but everybody ended up with a card that wasn't half bad:

Brave Lorraine was the first to go....here Anna and daughter Brooke are "guiding" her with the punch!

It looks like she is peeking at the card through her blindfold, doesn't it?  But she was just "feeling" her way around! 

Here's her finished card!  And then my camera batteries died.......

but DH found some by the time everyone was finished!!!  Then we stamped some more and ate some yummy desserts!  A great Friday night!