July 30. 2010

Hey everyone! Happy Friday! I've been busy making two more cards for Bugaboo's Sweet Summer Time challenge. The challenge is to create a summer themed card.

I printed out my digi image and then heat set it using my heat gun. Then I colored it using my SU markers.

I used a few punches to layer my sentiment (I have them listed below).

Stamps: Bugaboo digi image- Summer Butterfly Bear- Ice Cream, SU's Mini Mates- for my sentiment
Card Stock: White, Barely Banana, Almost Amethyst, DP is SU
Ink: Almost Amethyst
Supplies: Ribbon, Martha Stewart Floral Lace Border Punch, 1" Circle Punch, 1 1/4" Circle Punch, 1 3/8" Circle Punch, Scallop Circle Punch, SU Markers

July 30, 2010

And here is the second card I made for the Bugaboo Sweet Summer Time challenge.   

Again, I printed the image; heat set it using my heat gun and then colored it using my SU markers.  I added some white dots on the bonnet using my white gel pen.

My pink background paper is DP from SU, but my blue background paper is actually bashful blue cardstock that I simply added a few white dots on using my white gel pen.

I have two rows of paper piercing just along the right side of my card and I've added a small spiral clip in the upper right hand corner of my main image.

Stamps: Bugaboo digi image- Baseball Sunbonnet Girl
Card Stock: White, Brocade Blue, Bashful Blue, SU DP
Ink:  None
Supplies:  Ribbon, White Gel Pen, SU Markers, Spiral Clip, SU Mat Pack, Paper Piercing Tool
Technique:  Paper Piercing

Have a great weekend!  I'll be back again on Monday with another clean & simple card to share!

July 29, 2010

Here's my submission for this week's CAS-tastic challenge.  The challenge this week was to create a cas card using bling.  I decided to use bling gems on my card and I placed them in the center of the blue flowers.

My blue flowers were were stamped, colored, cut out and then placed on top of my main stamped image.  I folded up the edges of the popped up flowers just a bit.  My main image was simply stamped and then colored using my SU markers.   The bottom of my certainly celery card stock layer is punched using my MS border punch.

I hope you like my card, thanks for stopping by and be sure to check back tomorrow.  I have two cards ready for my post tomorrow.  Have a great day!

Stamps: Simply Said
Card Stock: White, Certainly Celery, So Saffron, Bashful Blue
Ink: Black Stazon
Supplies: Ribbon, SU Markers, Bling Gems, Glue Dots, Scissors- for cutting out flowers, Martha Stewart Arch Lattice Border Punch

July 28, 2010

I've always wanted to try making a card by combining both the color and sketch challenge from Splitcoast. And so this is my first attempt at working with both challenges. The challenge colors were Crushed Concord, Daffodil Delight, and Pear Pizzazz. 

Since I do not yet have any of the new colors I had to improvise.  I went with Certainly Celery, So Saffron, and Elegant Eggplant. My background paper is actually stamped by using the flower center stamp and I stamped it repeatedly using the same color ink pads.  I used my white gel pen for the white dots on the end of my modern label punched card stock.

I'm also submitting my card for the Treehouse Thursday Challenge.  The challenge was to use polka dots, what a fun and easy challenge!

Thanks for visiting, have a wonderful rest of the day and be sure to stop by tomorrow!

Stamps: Watercolor Garden, So Many Sayings
Card Stock: White, Certainly Celery, So Saffron, Elegant Eggplant
Ink: Elegant Eggplant
Supplies: Ribbon, Cuttlebug, With Love Embossing Folder, Modern Label Punch, Word Window Punch, White Gel Pen
Technique:  Dry Embossing, 2 Step Stampin

July 27, 2010

Good Morning!  The card I made today is for Bugaboo's Sweet Sweet Summertime challenge.  The challenge is a theme challenge to create a summer card.  The image I used on my card is a Bugaboo digi image called BF summer treats.

I printed the digi image and then heat set it using my heat gun.  You'll want to be sure and heat set your image, it really does keep the ink from smearing.  Next, I colored the image using my SU markers and then I cut it out using my scallop circle Nesties.

And finally, I added some white dots on my green card stock using my white gel pen.  And that's it, a super quick and easy card!  Thanks for taking the time to visit my blog, have a great day!

Stamps:  Bugaboo digi image- Beach Frog Summer Treats
Card Stock: White, Pink Passion, Green Galore, DP is DCWV Sweet Glitter Pack
Ink:  None
Supplies:  Ribbon, Scallop Border Punch, White Gel Pen, SU Markers, Cuttlebug, Scallop Circle Nesties

July 26, 2010

Hi everyone!  I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  The weather has finally gotten a lot less humid here in PA and much more bearable.  The card I'm sharing with you today is for today's CAS splitcoast challenge.

This week's clean & simple challenge is a theme challenged based on the Dr. Seuss book, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish.  The only thing that kept rolling in my mind was this cat image and the little fishes stamp in this set.

I first stamped the cat image using black Stazon.  Next, I stamped the little fish, (one red one and one blue one) right next to the cat image.   I used my white gel pen to give the fish a dot for their eyes.

My real red card stock is stamped repeatedly using real red ink and the little paw stamp from this same set.

I used my eyelet border punch for the edging along the bottom of my brilliant blue layer.  Once I was finished with my card I decided to add a bit of doodling all along the edges of my main stamped panel.

I hope you like my card; at first I wasn't quite sure about the red and blue together, but I wanted to sort of go along with the theme of today's challenge.  I think my sister would love to receive this card, she's a cat lover!

Be sure to stop on by tomorrow, I will be posting a card I made for the current Bugaboo stamps blog challenge.

Stamps:  C is for Cat
Card Stock: White, Real Red, Brilliant Blue, Blue & White DP
Ink: Black Stazon, Real Red, Brilliant Blue
Supplies:  Ribbon, Eyelet Border Punch, 1" Circle Punch, 1 1/4" Circle Punch, White Gel Pen -for fish's eyes, SU Marker for doodling

July 23, 2010

The other day my mother in law gave me some the cards that I have made for her over the past five years.  I found this card in the pile and this was one of the first cards I ever made so I thought I would share it with you. 

I'm not 100% sure how I made my ribbon treatment.  I think I remember tying a small piece of ribbon in a knot and then before pulling it taught I slipped an even smaller piece through the top part and then I pulled it tightly.  Then I placed the ribbon onto my card using a glue dot.

My tag images are simply stamped and then punched out using my SU tag punch.  They were placed on my card using dimensionals.  I didn't yet have the smaller tag punch to layered the tag images.

My background was stamped using the SU background stamp 'On the Spot'.  To create my sentiment panel I used the Sweet Spot stamp set to randomly stamp images all along the edges and then I stamped the birthday sentiment in the middle.

I have two more of my older cards that I found in the pile of cards my mother in law gave me and I'll share those with you within the next week or so.  Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

Stamps: Terrific Tags (punch box), On The Spot Background, Sweet Spot, It's Your Birthday
Card Stock: White, Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue
Ink: Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue
Supplies: Ribbon, Tag Punch, Dimensionals, Glue Dot

July 22. 2010

I love the CAS-tastic blog challenges.  I do them almost weekly and yesterday my card was chosen as one of the top five.  How exciting!  Here is my card from last week, if anyone would like to take a look.

And today I'd like to share the card I made for this week's CAs-tastic challenge, inspired by summer.

I also made this card for last week's free for all challenge on splitcoast.  That challenge was to use something new on our cards.  This is my first attempt at using my new nesties.  My local AC Moore store just started carrying them.

My card is really simple to make all I did was to color my flower stamp using my SU markers and then stamped it onto my card stock.

Next, I added a few rows of paper piercing, stamped my sentiment and then assemble my card.  Super quick and easy!

Have a great rest of the day!  I'm going to try and stay cool, get some house work finished, and enjoy the rest of my day.

Stamps: Garden Silhouettes, Warmest Regards
Card Stock: White, Pretty in Pink, SU DP
Ink: Brown Stazon
Supplies: Ribbon, SU Markers, Square #7 Nesties, Scallop Square #7 Nesties, Cuttlebug, SU Mat Pack, Paper Piercing Tool, Stamp-a-ma-jig,
Technique: Paper Piercing

July 21. 2010

This is the card I made for this week's sketch challenge from Splitcoast stampers.  As soon as I saw this week's sketch I knew exactly which stamp set I wanted to use. 

I had just had this set out on my table and so I thought the snowman would be perfect in those squares.  I first stamped the snowman and then punched them out.

Next, I colored them using my SU markers and then I added a bit of blue to the snowman using my Watercolor crayons and a blender pen.  My white background is embossed using my cuttlebug and snowflakes embossing folder.

I decided to use some organdy ribbon along with silver cording for my ribbon treatment.  I thought it would look nice with the glitter I added on my snowmen.

Thanks so much for taking the time to drop by!  Have a wonderful day!

Stamps: Merry & Bright
Card Stock: White, Night of Navy, Bordering Blue, SU DP
Ink: Black Stazon
Supplies: Organdy Ribbon, Silver Cording, Modern Label Punch, Word Window Punch, Square Punch, Scallop Square Punch,  SU Markers, 2 Way Glue Pen, DD Glitter, Cuttlebug, Snowflakes Embossing Folder, SU Wonder Crayons, Blender Pen
Technique: Dry Embossing, Water Coloring

July 20, 2010

This is the card I made for this week's featured stamper challenge.  This week's featured stamper is Latisha Yoast.  Congrats Latisha!  This is her card that I chose to case.  I kept the same basic layout, but I changed the colors a bit and I used a different flower stamp.

I simply stamped my flower images and then punched them out using my square punch.   Then I layered them onto myblack card stock and then again onto my punched scalloped squares.

I couldn't quite figure out how I wanted to tie on the ribbon on my card and then I came across my treading water punch.  I punched the border along the left side of my card and then I threaded the ribbon through the holes and tied a knot.

I colored my ribbon using my SU markers because I couldn't find exactly the colors I needed.  I added a few score lines in-between the ribbon part of my card and my stamped flower images.  Finally, I added my butterflies with a dab of liquid pearl on each one.

I hope you like my card!  Thanks so much for stopping by!

Stamps: For All You Do, It's Your Birthday
Card Stock: White, Certainly Celery, So Saffron, Regal Rose, Black
Ink: Black Stazon, Certainly Celery, So Saffron, Regal Rose
Supplies:  Ribbon, Fiskars Treading Water Punch, Martha Stewart 3 in 1 Butterfly Punch, Scallop Square Punch, Square Punch, Scor-pal, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Liquid Pearls, SU Markers, 2 Way Glue Pen
Technique: Dry Embossing

We Have a Winner!!!

Happy Monday! 

And to start off the week I have a winner for my card giveaway that I posted last Monday.

I used random.org to randomly draw a winner and the winner was comment #7. Kari  Congratulations to you, Kari and thanks so much for playing along.

I will send you an email for your address and I'll have your cards in the mail this week, I hope you like them!

Thank you to everyone else for playing along and be sure to check back again for my next giveaway!

Now I'm off to create some cards while the baby is still sleeping.

Have a great rest of the day!

My First Blog Giveaway!

This week's Splitcoast's clean & simple challenge is a real easy one.  If you have time be sure to check it out.  The challenge can be found here.  The challenge this week is to create a CAS card using dry embossing.

I use embossing on a lot of my cards.  It's such an easy way to add that 'wow' factor or to add just a little something extra without over doing it.  My cuttlebug is one of my most used tools and I just love it!

I originally made one card of these cards and I then I really liked the way it turned out. 

These literally took only minutes to make, so I decided to keep going and I make an entire set of cards (in different colors).  I was planning on doing 3 birthday, 3 thinking of you, and 3 thank you cards, but I ended up using a few different sentiments from SU's Warmest Regards stamp set.

I ran the upper portion of my card stock through my cuttlebug machine and then I tied on the ribbon.  Next I colored just the centers of the embossed flowers using my SU markers, and then I added my sentiment- so quick and easy!

And what am I going to do with all of these cards you ask?  Well, I've decided that it's time to have my very first blog give away and the prize will be this set of cards, with envelopes of course. 

All you need to do to win is to leave a comment for me here in this post (I'd love to have you as a follower as well, but it's not required). 

I will be drawing a winner one week from today on Monday morning, July 19th.  I will contact the winner (and I'll post it on my blog as well) and then I'll get these cards in the mail. Everyone is welcome to play along, I will ship outside of the US.  Good Luck and thanks for stopping by!

Below is a close up photo of one of my cards.  And I have individual photos of all of these cards posted here in my Splitcoast gallery.

Stamps: Warmest Regards
Card Stock: White
Ink: Black Stazon
Supplies: Cuttlebug, SU's Petals-A-Plenty Embossing Folder, SU Markers, Ribbon, Stamp-a-ma-jig
Technique: Dry Embossing

July 18, 2010

Hey everyone!  It took me awhile to come up with a card using this stamp set.  I say that every time I try to use SU's Looks Like Spring set. 

I don't know why I have such a hard time with this one, but anyway here's my card for today. I made this card for the ways to use it challenge on Splitcoast stampers.  The challenge was to find ways to use our chalks.

I stamped the flower images using my versa mark ink pad and then I light dabbed on the chalks.  My main flower was stamped, chalked, and then cut out.  I stamped two of the larger flowers and the smaller flowers were punched using my spring bouquet flower punch.

To make the edges of my flower rounded I rolled them using the non-tip part of a pen.  I did this a few times and in the photo just to the right you can see my results close up.

My background was created by scoring lines using my scor-pal and the dotted lines in-between were created using my scor-bug.  I used my scallop trim border punch and corner punch to create the barely banana scalloped frame.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Be sure to check in on Monday afternoon to see who the winner will be for my blog 'card set' giveaway.

Stamps: Looks Like Spring, Cute Converse
Card Stock: White, Almost Amethyst, Barely Banana, Certainly Celery
Ink: Going Grey, Versa Mark
Supplies: Organdy Ribbon, Chalks, Q-Tips, Spring Bouquet Flower Punch, Scallop Trim Border Punch, Scallop Trim Corner Punch, Round Tab Punch, 2 Way Glue Pen, Scor-pal, Scor-bug, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Dimensionals
Technique: Dry Embossing

July 15, 2010

As I promised yesterday here is my card for this week's CAS-tastic challenge.  The challenge this week was to create a Simple   CAS card.

We were to use three of the following techniques:  Stamped (or printed) Image, Inked Edges, Masking, Paper Piercing, Lace, or Embossing.

I decided to use these on my card:  Stamped Images, Inked Edges, and Masking.

I realize that I did make a similar card once before, but this time my card is even quicker to create.  I can easily imagine making 50 of these for my holiday cards.

When I purchased this stamp set I cut apart the tree and sentiment so that they are two stamps instead of one- this makes for easier stamping.  To create my card I simply stamped the tree image, and then I wiped off the bird and colored it using my real red marker. 

Next I created a mask by stamping another image on a scrap piece of card stock and cutting just along the bottom of the tree line.  Then I placed my mask just along the bottom of the trees and I began sponging my background.

I decided not to sponge too much on my background, but I did leave an area around the bird without any sponging and then I just needed to stamp the sentiment.

I just realized that I should have probably added some glitter on the trees; I bet that would have really dressed up my card.

Tomorrow I want to try and post a card using chalks.  That was today's ways to use it challenge on Splitcoast stampers.  I can't tell you how long it's been since I've used my chalks, so this will certainly be a challenge for me.

Have a great rest of the day!  I'm off to finish my house work and get supper started.  My son has his last swimming lesson tonight, so I'd better get going!

Stamps: Scenic Season
Card Stock: White
Ink: Real Red, Garden Green
Supplies: Real Red SU Marker, Sponge, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Scissors- for cutting out my masked card stock
Technique: Sponging, Masking, 2 Step Stampin

July 14, 2010

Hey everyone!  I'm posting a bit late tonight, but better late than never, right?!  This is the card I made for this week's sketch over at the Clean & Simple stamping blog.

I followed the sketch almost exactly, but I decided to use my larger SU square punch (which made the square a little bit smaller than in the sketch).  I thought it would be easier to try and line up the frogs the way I wanted them using my punch.  I also needed to move my sentiment down just a little bit.

My card sort of just fell together today and I had it finished rather quickly.  That's the great thing about sketch challenges, I can just stamp away!

I stamped the frogs and then punched them out.  Next I colored their eyes and mouth using my Close to Cocoa SU marker. 

I then placed the frogs on my brown card stock layer and then I started assembling my card.  At the very last minute I decided to add the fly which I stamped, cut out, and then I added a bit of glitter on the wings.

My ribbon treatment is simply three small ribbon scraps tied onto my main Close to Cocoa ribbon.  This is a great way to use up some of your ribbon scraps.

Have a great rest of the day and tomorrow I'm planning on making a card for this week's CAS-tastic challenge.  Don't forget if you haven't already done so, be sure to leave a comment on my first blog giveaway post for a chance to win the set of cards I made earlier this week.  I'll be drawing a winner on Monday July 19th.

Stamps:  Hoppy For You

Card Stock: White, Close to Cocoa, DCWV Spring Glitter Pack DP

Ink: Green Galore, Close to Cocoa, Timber Brown Stazon- for the fly

Supplies: Close to Cocoa SU Marker, Ribbon, EK Success Dotted Wave Border Punch, Word Window Punch, Modern Label Punch, 1 3/8" Square Punch, Scissors for cutting out fly, DD Glitter, 2 Way Glue Pen

July 13, 2010

It's not too early to start working on some Christmas cards, right?  Last year I made my cards early and it was so much easier than trying to make 50 of them at once.  I love this tree image, but it sure is a lot of coloring, so needless to say I won't be making too many of these this year.

I stamped my image and colored it using my SU markers and the rest of my card was pretty simple.  I added some paper piercing all around my image and just along the bottom of my card.

The decorative paper I used is double sided paper and I just folded over the top 1/4".

Thanks for stopping by and if you haven't already, be sure to check out my post from yesterday (I'll keep it at the top of my blog for this week).  I'm giving away a set of cards that I made, all you need to do is to leave a comment in the post for a chance to win!

Stamps: Old Fashioned Christmas
Card Stock: White, Old Olive, SU DP
Ink: Black Stazon
Supplies: Ribbon, SU Markers, SU Mat Pack, Paper Piercing Tool, Scallop Border Punch, Coluzzle Oval Template
Technique: Paper Piercing

July 11, 2010

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!  The baby is still not feeling well, but at least she slept through the night and I was able to get some much needed rest.  Thank you to you all for your well wishes.

I made this card for today's Splitcoast stamper's featured stamper challenge.  This week's featured stamper is sbs81, congratulations Stephanie!  And this is her card that I decided to case.

I used the same stamp set as Stephanie did and I also wanted to try and make a one layer card like her card is.  I kept the same sketch, but I decided to add a butterfly, dry embossing, and I changed the colors up a bit.

I created a mask using my coluzzle rectangle template.  I placed the template on top of my card and I began stamping the flower images.  Once I had my flower images stamped I started sponging my blue background.  (I didn't mask off the flowers, I just sponged around them).

I decided that my card still needed a little something else so I added some decorative scoring along the outside border using my scor-pal.

The bee was just stamped, cut out, colored using my SU markers, and the placed on my card.  I added some dd glitter onto the bee's wings.

Thanks for stopping by!  Tomorrow I'll be posting a card for Splitcoast's Clean & Simple (Monday) challenge.  If you have time be sure to check out the challenge found here, this week is a super easy one!

Stamps: Watercolor Garden
Card Stock: White
Ink: So Saffron, Old Olive, Close to Cocoa, Brocade Blue
Supplies: Scor-pal, Sponge, 2 Way Glue Pen, DD Glitter, Scissors- for cutting out bee image, Coluzzle Rectangle Template, Coluzzle Knife, SU Markers for coloring in the bee
Technique: Sponging, 2 Step Stampin, Dry Embossing

July 10, 2010

Hi everyone! I hope you had a great week; it sure was a hot one here in PA.  We had temperatures near 100 degrees this past week. It hasn't been this hot and humid here in years!

I've been busy this week taking care of my 18 month old daughter who has been pretty sick. Just when I thought she was getting better, it seems that she has a cold now. I'm just trying to keep her comfortable and making sure that she's getting some fluids and some rest.

So, my card for today had to be a quick one. I made it while my daughter was resting. My son went to a birthday party today and the little girl who had the party is my son's 'girlfriend'. It's a cute story, but the little girl and my son are both 5 years old and they hold hands and give each other hugs. Long story short, they haven't seen each other since preschool graduation a few weeks ago and they were so excited to see each other again at her party today.

It turns out that the little girl just loves Spiderman and my son wanted to give her one of his Spiderman silly bandz bracelets. What a great idea I thought.  So I ended up making her this card and I thought my son could mail it to her with a few of his silly bandz inside it.

This idea for this card came to me when I was looking for another stamp set. I saw the sweet stuff sentiment with this lollipop image and I thought, how perfect!

I stamped the lollipop image and colored it using my SU markers. I tried to color the lollipop to resemble one of those all day suckers we used to get when we were kids.

My background is embossed with a few score lines using my Scor-pal and the lower part of my background has two rows of paper piercing.

I tied on my ribbon and placed the lollipop image using dimensionals and that's about it, real quick and easy! 

Sorry for the long post today, I guess I had some catching up to do.  Be sure to stop on by tomorrow, I will be posting my card for this week's Splitcoast Featured Stamper challenge.

Stamps: Very Punny
Card Stock: White, Bashful Blue, Pretty in Pink, DCWV
Ink: Black Stazon
Supplies: Ribbon, SU Markers, SU Mat Pack, Paper Piercing Tool, Scallop Trim Border Punch, Scallop Circle Punch, 1 3/8" & 1 1/4" Circle Punches
Technique: Paper Piercing, Dry Embossing

July 6, 2010

Hey all! I'm here and still alive!

My computer is back up and running again and I wanted to take a minute to pop in and say hello!



I hope you all had a great holiday weekend.

We went to see fireworks and we were invited to a couple of picnics.  We also went swimming and visited some of our family, plus this week was my wedding anniversary.

Hubby surprised me and we went on a 'date'.  We had a great time and I told him we should do this every week!

We almost never get a chance to go out without the children and it was nice to have some time just for ourselves, especially because we've been so busy lately.

I promise to get back into my regular postings, but for today I thought I would share a picture from our local fireworks display. Our town almost didn't have our annual fireworks this year due to not having enough money, but someone generously donated the funds that were needed!