Christmas Card Challenges #28

This week at Christmas Card Challenges we have a color challenge. For my card I die cut the tree from Tim Holtz grunge board. I painted it white with Claudine Hellmuth acrylic paint in Blank Canvas. Then I added different blue buttons in the color palette and used a Christy Tomlinson trick and put the butterfly on the top instead of a star. The blue card stock and ink is Night of Navy from Stampin' Up. The sentiment is from Hero Arts. This was a really fun color scheme to work with. I hope you will take some time to get an early start on your Holiday Cards and  join us this week.

Here is the color story.

Here's my card.

Hope You Can Cling To - Blingtastic

Today I'm excited to be hosting the Hope You Can Cling To Challenge over at Splitcoast Stampers. My challenge is called Blingtastic - make a card using Glitter and Rhinestones. 

For my card I used different glitter papers and Elizabeth Crafts candle dies. The Birthday word die is from Papertrey Ink. The other dies are Sizzix Framelits. I also used some pink letter stickers and clear rhinestones from Stampin' Up. 

To participate, just upload the card to your Splitcoast Gallery and use the keyword HYCCT1314. 

Here is a link to the HYCCT Forum.

Day 2 of the 7 Days of Halloween Inspiration

Welcome to Day 2 of the 7 Days of Halloween Blog Event brought to you by "The Inspiration Crew".  We’re just a group of online crafty friends who love being creative. This time we're doing a 7 day event to provide you with tons of Halloween Inspiration.

We're making crafty projects using products we like and some of us are even offering prizes. Check each blog and the information there for what prizes are being offered and when the winners will be announced on that blog.

At the bottom of this post is a list of all the crafty ladies participating in this event. Be sure to visit all the blogs each day for loads of fun Halloween craft ideas. 

I'm also offering a prize!! My prize is a $20 Michaels gift card. To be eligible to win just be sure you are a follower of my blog and leave a comment. The more days you comment, the more chances you have to win!! I'll announce the winner on my blog Tuesday, October 15. 

Here's my project for Day 2 - Halloween Notepads. I started with plain white notepads that I ordered from Oriental Trading Company. I used a Tim Holtz Pumpkin die and his new Distress Glitters on the pumpkins to make them nice and blingy. I added some seasonal papers and the sentiments are SRM Stickers. These are easy and fun and great gifts for your secret pal or friends and coworkers. 

Thanks for stopping by. Don't forget to leave a comment and become a follower so you'll qualify for the Michaels gift card and be sure to check out the awesome inspiration from the other ladies (blogs listed below). Some of them are offering prizes also!! We have a Pinterest Board too, click here to check it out.

Donna Bowman 

Rachel Kleinman

Ceal Pritchett

Lalo Ik

Barb Murphy

Angi Barrs

Annette Allen

Misty Buck

Ardyth Percy-Robb

Susie Craft Happy

Geri Greening

Moxie Fab - Now That's My Cup of Tea

I FINALLY made a card!! Since all my crafty supplies are crammed in the little bedroom I have in my parents house and most of my creating is done on my twin bed, I just don't get many things made these days. But, I was inspired to buy these cute Waltzingmouse Doll Stamps after reading a Moxie Fab post and when I saw this week's Tuesday Trigger picture I was inspired to use them. I was completely inspired by the colors in the photo. My "aqua" color ended up being a little more green than blue like the picture, but I love all these colors together. You can click here to go to the Moxie Fab World and join in the fun there. I haven't played in a challenge in so many months, I'm so glad I got in on this fun one. I used Stampin' Up papers & brads, Studio Calico Enamel Dots and Memento Inks on this card.

I am going to try to be more creative this fall and I hope to be in my house with my new craft room in December. I'm attaching the first glimpse I got of the craft room the day they built steps. I'm so excited. I have BIG plans for that room!!

Here's my card. 

Here's my future craft room!

The Play Date Cafe 161

Welcome to our new color challenge at The Play Date Cafe. This week we have some fun, funky and festive colors - Evergreen, Gum Drop and Candy Cane Red. I just love these colors and I decided to make a funky and bright card this week. My colors aren't spot on, but I can say I was definitely inspired by this awesome color story.

I die cut the tree from grunge paper and colored it with a new Tim Holtz Distress stain - Pickled Raspberry. Then I added various red brads for ornaments. There is more contrast between the pink and red in person. The papers are Snow Day from Crate Paper and the sentiment is a SRM Sticker. I had those bright red snowflakes in my stash.

I'm also entering this card into the Cupcake Craft Challenge. Their theme this week is Merry Christmas so this fits the bill. 

Our sponsor this week is Simon Says Stamp. They will be offering a gift certificate to our lucky winner. Be sure to go check out there large inventory crafty goodness.

12 Days of Holiday Projects - Day 11

We now have a Pinterest page featuring the projects of many of the designers participating in the 12 Days of Holiday Projects. It's a very inspiring board and I hope you will check it out. http://pinterest.com/corgidusty/12-days-of-holiday-projects-2012/

Welcome to Day 11 of The 12 Days of Holiday Projects Blog Event. Several crafty blog friends and I decided to post one holiday project a day for 12 days - just for fun. We’re posting projects we made using products we like and hope they will give you some inspiration for your own holiday craft projects. You will find links to all the other participating bloggers below. Hopefully you can find time to look at the other blogs and leave comments on any that inspire you. If we inspire you to make, something please let us know - we would love to see. Happy Holiday Crafting!!

For my Day 11 Project I'm sharing some more ornaments I made with my favorite large Sizzix ornament die. When I got my second order of Claudine Hellmuth acrylic paints, I LOVED the teal color and I was inspired to make these teal ornaments with some Tim Holtz retro dies. These are definitely non-traditional ornaments in color and subject matter, but I really like them and think they would look great on a tree. 

To make them, I die cut the ornaments from Tim Holtz Grunge Board and painted the ball Teal and I painted the hanger with Tim Holtz Brushed Pewter Crackle Paint. When it dried I went over the ornament with Black Soot distress ink (see www.timholtz.com) and sprayed it with Perfect Pearls Mist. Then I die cut the shapes and painted them with black acrylic paint and Brushed Pewter crackle paint for the accents. The fabric hanger is Tim Holtz trim that I died with Brushed Pewter Distress Stain. I glued them on with Glossy Accents. They were really fun to make!  I can't believe we only have 1 day left. I have a big project to show you tomorrow. I hope you can stop by to see my Day 12 project. 

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you can make it to the blogs of the other ladies to see the awesome holiday projects they are sharing with you today.

Barb Murphy

Ceal Pritchett

Donna Bowman 

Jen Cuthbertson

Lalo Ik

Libby Hickson

Rachel Izakowicz

Rachel Kleinman

Regina Hardy

Veronica Zalis

12 Days of Holiday Projects - Day 3

Welcome to Day 3 of The 12 Days of Holiday Projects Blog Event. Several crafty blog friends decided to post one holiday project a day for 12 days - just for fun.  The projects will be anything crafty like cards, ornaments, wreaths, advent calendars, etc… We’re posting projects we made using products we like and hope they will give you some inspiration for your own holiday craft projects. You will find links to all the other participating bloggers below. Hopefully you can find time to look at the other blogs and leave comments on any that inspire you. If we inspire you to make something please let us know - we would love to see. Happy Holiday Crafting!!

The project I'm sharing for Day 3 is a set of 3 ornaments. To make these I used a large ornament die from Sizzix and cut it out in Grungboard. I painted the tops with Tim Holtz Brushed Pewter Crackle Paint. I painted the colors on the ornaments using Claudine Helmuth acrylic paints and then I sprayed them with Perfect Pearls Mist in Perfect Pearls to give them a little sheen. Then, I used Dyan Reaveley's Dylusions stencils and the acrylic paints to paint on the images. When it dried I put Stickles in a matching color over the images. I love how colorful and fun these turned out. And, they were easy too. 

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you will be able to visit the other ladies blogs and leave them some love. They've been working very hard on some amazing holiday projects to share with you. 

Barb Murphy

Ceal Pritchett

Donna Bowman (me)

Jen Cuthbertson

Lalo Ik

Libby Hickson

Rachel Izakowicz

Rachel Kleinman

Regina Hardy

Veronica Zalis

Happy Easter!

I just thought I would pop in today and share with you my "mass-produced" Easter card. I loved this bunny die from Tim Holtz and couldn't resist making tons of bunnies and adding Distress Stickles to them. The rest of the card uses Tim Holtz papers. All the cards were slightly different with different colors of papers. I really wanted to use as much of a paper pack as possible - it seems like I never use up anything!!

Today is bittersweet for me. It's the last day of Spring Break and I'm off to work tomorrow after a very relaxing and productive week off. This morning I'm having breakfast with my family and then we're going to the funeral of my aunt this afternoon. I guess that's just how life is.

I hope you have a very Happy Easter and are able to spend some quality time with your friends and family!!

The Play Date Cafe Challenge

I made this card for the current Play Date Cafe Color Challenge. The butterfly was in my new Studio Calico KOM, the decorative paper is October Afternoon Sasparilla - High Noon. The stamp is from Stampin' Up.

Every time I use this sentiment I think of my friend Leona. It was her favorite thing to say and she would call all the ladies in our running group Club PLJ. Unfortunately, she died 3 years ago in a car wreck. Dusty's Birthday Party in 2008 was one of the last times I saw her. I was glad to see her husband Tom at Dusty's Party last week with 2 of their dogs. So, this one's for Leona - PLJ my friend.

Here's my card. 

CAS Hero Arts Card Set

I am now going to be teaching card making classes at my local stamping store called The Stamping Place & Scrapbook Station. I wanted to come up with a CAS set of cards that students could make in a couple of hours. I used the Hero Arts/Sizzix set called Playful Flowers & Butterflies. The sentiments are from the Hero Arts set called Essential Messages. All the images have dies which makes it so much easier than cutting them!!  Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Dirtday!!!

For those of you who have read my blog for a while you know I have a special little man in my life named Reece. He's my friends son and my parents and I have basically adopted him. He even calls my parents Grandmommy and Grandaddy - which is great since my brother and I have no children! Reece is turning 3 January 18. I made him this card for his birthday. He is absolutely crazy about construction equipment so I bought him this cute stamp set from Stampin' Up called I Dig You. I got him the wooden stamps so they would be easier to use and he loves to stamp all the construction vehicles. I borrowed the set from my mom to make this card. I hope he likes it. 

Here's the inside.

Here's a picture I took of Reece a couple of weeks ago when we were riding on the Merry Go Round. We were at the zoo to see the Christmas lights.

Play Date Cafe - Three Hearts

I made this card for the current Play Date Cafe Challenge #114 to use the colors Gold, Burgundy, & Plum. I made these hearts with a Sizzix die and the sentiment is from Hero Arts. The "hangers" of the heart ornaments are actually from some die cut grunge board pieces I was playing with. They're from the Tim Holtz Gingerbread Man die. I colored them with distress stains and rock candy glitter but it's kind of hard to tell they are glittery. I just thought they matched the colors and were kind of fun. I popped up the middle heart and hanger with foam tape. Thanks for taking a look!

Here's my card.

Materials
1. Card stock - Whisper White, Perfect Plum, Bravo Burgundy - Stampin' Up; Gold - Bazzill Basics
2. Stamp - Celebrate Everyday - Hero Arts
3. Ink - Bravo Burgundy - Stampin' Up
4. Die - Heart Ornament - Sizzix
5. Grunge board - Tim Holtz
6. Distress Stain - Fired Brick
7. Distress Stickles - Rock Candy

Warmest Wishes & Good News

After reading my friend Rachel's blog (which is awesome - you should pay her a visit) about how she made some crafty goals for the new year, I decided to make some of my own Paper Crafting goals for 2012. To my total surprise in the first two weeks of 2012 I can already strike 2 off the list. One was to be a Tuesday Trigger winner which I was last week with Stripe-tastic and another was to finally place at CAS-ual Fridays - which I can't believe I did last week with my Home Sweet Home card! 


Another goal I have is to make Christmas cards year round so I have plenty to send out next year without having to stress out and make lots of cards in November/December. I found this new fun challenge blog called 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown. I couldn't quite make the deadline last week, but I'm in this week. I'm excited to get more use out all the Christmas stamps I bought last year and I hope to play in this challenge every chance I get. This week the challenge is a color one - black & white with a splash of red. I used this sweet girl from the Artistic Outpost stamp set called Frosty Friends. Thanks for taking a look!!

Here's my card.

Materials
1. Card stock - Whisper White, Basic Black, Real Red - Stampin' Up
2. Stamps - Frosty Friends, Holiday Saying - Hero Arts
3. Ink - Tuxedo Black - Memento
4. Rhinestones - Bling on a Roll - Michaels
5. Die - Label - Sizzix

Wednesday Gel-a-tins - Fancy Favor Bag

It's Wednesday again and time for my weekly Gel-a-tins post. This week I created my own patterned paper using the Gel-a-tins stamp set called Sweet Cakes. I made this cute Fancy Favor bag with my patterned paper. For more info check out the Gel-a-tins Blog. 


I also wanted to share a fun blog that has been sending me lots of hits this week. I don't speak Spanish so I'm not sure what it says, but she has a fun colorful blog header and she's been featuring that rainbow card you might have read about last week. So check out this fun blog if you get a chance http://minimarta.blogspot.com/2012/01/alguna-vez-has-pintado-con-arena.html 


Thanks for stopping by and have a great Wednesday!!


Patterned paper:

Finished Favor Bag.

Tuesday Trigger - By the Numbers

I made this for the current Tuesday Trigger in the Moxie Fab World. Click here to join in on all the fun. I was mostly inspired by the numbers. Then, yesterday I got my Studio Calico Kit of the Month and it had this awesome Hero Arts/Studio Calico number stamp in it. I thought it would be perfect to use for this challenge. I used the Stampin' Up new In Colors. Thanks for taking a look!

Here's my card. 

Materials
1. Card Stock - Whisper White, Island Indigo - Stampin' Up
2. Ink - Island Indigo, Calypso Coral, Pool Party, Wisteria Wonder, Lucky Limeade - Stampin' Up
3. Ribbon - Calypso Coral - Stampin' Up
4. Die - Sizzix
5. Stamps - Numbers - Hero Arts/Studio Calico, Sentiment - So Happy For You - Stampin' Up

Play Date Cafe - Snowman

** This card was "Cream in Our Coffee" at the Play Date Cafe!!**


I made this card for the current Play Date Cafe Challenge. The challenge is to use black and white and a splash of orange. I tried to think of something Thanksgiving related, but all I could come up with was my favorite winter image - the snowman. So here's my simple little snowman with an orange nose of course. Thanks for taking a look!!

Here's my card. 

Instructions
1. Make card from black card stock.
2. Die cut a 3.5 inch circle from white paper and adhere to card with foam tape.
3. Cut 2 black and white rectangles for the hat and adhere with foam tape
4. Add black pearls for eyes and mouth.
5. Cut orange triangle for nose and adhere with foam tape. 


Materials
1. Card stock - Black, Whisper White, Pumpkin Pie - Stampin' Up
2. Pearls - Prima
3. Circle Die - Sizzix

Play Date Cafe Challenge #100 - Scatter Sunshine

I made this card for the current Play Date Cafe Challenge #100. I wanted to use my new Hero Arts Fox, Sizzix hexagon die and Amy Tangerine stickers. So I made this simple scene - maybe a little too simple, but I like it. Thanks for taking a look!

Here's my card. 

Materials
1. Card stock - Crumb Cake, Whisper White (Stampin Up)
2. Decorative paper - Run of the Mill (Studio Calico) Cajun Craze DSP (Stampin Up)
3. Stamp - Fox (Hero Arts)
4. Ink - Basic Black (Stampin Up)
5. Ribbon - Old Olive (Stampin Up)
6. Sticker - Sticker Book (Amy Tangerine)

USA!!

*Scroll down page for Young Crafters Unite Blog Hop*

Happy 4th of July!! I found this awesome paper and had to make a July 4th card. I'm entering it into the Cupcake Inspiration Challenge #117. Thanks for taking a look!

Here's my card.

Materials

Card stock - Pacific Point, Whisper White (Stampin Up)

Decorative Papers - Yankee Doodles (We R Memory Keepers)

Dies - Go Go Boots, Stars (Sizzix)

Summer Card Camp Card #2 & CAS-ual Fridays #2

This is my second card done in the color scheme for week 1 of Summer Card Camp. I used several edge punches so I'm also entering this card into this week's CAS-ual Fridays Get Edgy Challenge. I really wanted to use this orange paper, I thought it was perfect for the color scheme. Thanks for taking a look!

Here's my card. 

Materials

Card stock - Rich Razzleberry, Melon Mambo, Bashful Blue (Stampin Up)

Decorative paper - Jubilee (The Girls Paperie)

Edge punches (Stampin Up)

Stamp set - All Holidays (Stampin Up)

Ink - Rich Razzleberry craft ink (Stampin Up)

Clear embossing powder (Martha Stewart)

Pearls (Hero Arts)

Big Note Die (Stampin Up)

Flag Day Card

I made this card using two more free Paper Smooches digi stamps. It sort of turned into a flag and then I realized it actually was Flag Day so I decided to go with it. Thanks for taking a look!!

Materials

Card stock - Whisper White (Stampin Up) Red (Michaels) Blue (Bazzill Basics)

Stamps - Paper Smooches digi stamps

Dies - Oval (Nestabilities), Rick Rack (Sizzix)

Markers - Copics - Lipstick Red & Antwerp Blue

Instructions

1. Create card from card stock - Finished size is 4.5 x 5.5

2. Die cut rick rack and adhere to card

3. Die cut ovals, color flags adhere to card

3. Cut out sentiment and adhere to card