Celebrate-PP147,CTD244

I played along at the Color Throwdown and The Paper Players for today's card.  These two were both first times for me, but definitely won't be the last!  I combined the fun colour combo and great sketch for a bright card!

                                                  

I had to dig into my old stash to find some Pink Passion CS.  Thankfully there was some... in a house full of girls, you would think someone would have used it for some craft or another!  I didn't have any Going Gray CS anymore so I substituted Basic Gray.  It's a little darker, but I like the end result with the bright colors, offset with the Whisper White.  

 

I used a few embossing folders to add texture and then stamped this little vintage-y bike image in VersaMark and embossed it with Tempting Turquoise embossing powder.  I also embossed the Celebrate image with white embossing powder.  

I love this card.  It is so bright and cheery.  It's a birthday card anyone would love to receive in the mail.  Now all I have to do is remember to get them in the mail in time!

Thanks for looking.  Have a great day.

You Are Simply Wonderful - FM111

Hello again!  My little lady was STILL sleeping, so I figured 'make hay while the sun shines' (even though it is pouring rain outside) and I decided to sneak in under the wire on another cool challenge I found.  The Friday Mashup.  

Here's the Mashup Challenge:

1. Create a project using "your choice of a Neutral & a Splash of one Bright Color".
2. Create a project "using a Pencil (regular graphite #2)".
3. Or Mash it Up and create a project "using pencil & your choice of a neutral & a Splash of a Bright Color".

I chose SU! Naturals White CS as my neutral.  Raspberry Ripple became my "pop of colour" and  I mashed it all up by distressing the edges of my main panel with the edge of my scissor and running my pencil along it to act as a "shadow effect".  Continuing with my "drop shadow" idea I also coloured lightly around my little bird and drew some darker lines in his chest area.  Behind my sentiment (stamped off Basic Black) I did the same thing using my pencil in a crosshatch pattern.  

Looking at my picture now, it's pretty obvious that I had a pretty light hand, since it's fairly hard to actually see (or is that because my screen has my two years old's fingerprints?)  In real life it is much more obvious.  And not to make excuses for myself or anything, but the picture kinda sucks because it is a gloomy day, so that doesn't help either!

Thanks for looking!  Leave me some love!

Thinking of You Friend-FMS88, DD54

I haven't been down in my 'office' to actually make something with real paper in a while!  I decided to look up some online challenges for something other than digital, which I've been doing quite a bit lately.  I found some great sites and plan to try them all, but for starters I decided to play along at Freshly Made Sketches (FSM88) and Dynamic Duos (DD54).

Here is the sketch and the colour combo I used...

And here is my card...

Not the best picture, but it is a rainy day, so... not much to do about that!  I used this stamp for the first time.  I have a hard time making cards for this occasion, so hopefully this new stamp will help me past that problem!  It's a really beautiful image.  I stamped it twice, once in Bashful Blue, and again in Midnight Muse and trimmed around the circle to pop up the center piece with dimensionals.  I love the Window Frames Framelits, so I cut another one out of MM and used my paper piercer and template to add a little detail.  For my card base I used the Naturals White cardstock from SU! which I was also using for the first time.  I quite like it.  It's a little bit of a softer white than the Whisper White.... and also a little sturdier, IMO.

With a great sketch and a gorgeous colour combo I was done in no time flat.  Which is getting me all excited to make certain I get down to "mommy's office" more often!

Be sure to check out the challenge blogs by clicking the links and see what other lovely samples the DT's have created.  Go make something yourself!

Thanks for looking.... have a wonderful Wednesday!

MDSM16-Stamp In Color!

I played along today at MDS Monday.  MDSM16 involved a sketch and a challenge to stamp in color.  Use the stamp coloring tool... hmmm.  I do that on a regular basis, so I decided to challenge myself even further and used the horizontal element in the sketch to create some subway art, and then color the whole shebang in the colors of the rainbow!  I am so pleased with the end result.  It's not something I would even think of doing, (time consuming, hello!) if I were left to my own devices!  I am a pretty simple scrapbooker, I do love color, but usually I don't veer too far off my comfortable course!  The thing with challenges, is that they are making me think about what I can do differently, what could be kind of cool to try.  I know I'm not really cool (I'm a MOM!) but, you know, like 'cool' cool to try!  Yeah, like that!

So here's the sketch...

and here's my layout.  

 

I chose these pictures of my youngest daughter (21 months at the time!) on ANOTHER first day of school.  I am a school bus driver, and she comes with me and sits in her car seat next to all the kids!  She actually loves it, and knows kids by name, and tells me which ones I have to pick up next!  (She also tells me when we are going to pass a Tim Hortons coffee shop!  She truly is her mother's daughter!)  She definitely has her favorites on there, and totally runs the show.  Probably a mistake of me to let her do that.... she'll never listen when she finally starts school.  She'll be one of those kindergarten students who laughs at the kids who are crying on the first day, because she can't figure out what the big deal is.  Yeah, so anyway... she is such a ray of sunshine on the bus, that I went with the rainbow idea.  Even though a rainbow is associated with rain... I associate it with the sunshine because of it's gorgeous colors.

Go checkout MDS Monday and see all the gorgeous samples and be inspired to create something yourself!  Have a fantastic Tuesday!

Basket of Flowers

I CASEd this card from Stampin! Connection.  I don't remember from who it is.  It was from my early SU! days when I still used contraband on my cards!  I'm too SU! stuck-up for that now.  Hey, I love the quality and the way it all co-ordinates... what can I say... besides my two oldest lovelies love to play and "scrapbook" with all that stuff now!  I'm sharing!

Fabulous Birthday

MDSM #15

I really wanted to play along at MDS Monday this week with the sketch challenge.  Man, it was definitely a challenge for me.  Here's the sketch that was posted, and the challenge to go along with it was to find some fun ways to attach my photos.  

                              

First of all, I really struggled with that big picture... not because I don't like big pictures... (I knew right away which pictures I wanted to use) but it just wouldn't center it within my bleed area enough when I stretched it the full 12".  (I've had a bad experience with that bleed area before, and have since learned my lesson!)  So I settled for a 10"x6" photo with nothing other than a Downtown Grunge frame around it!  I 'attached' it with stitching that I recolored to Brilliant Blue to match the slide.  I messed around FOREVER with how to attach those smaller pictures.  Nothing looked right, I wanted something different... and I was starting to try too hard... and that NEVER works!  Usually gets worse!  

Then I thought of BRADS!  I haven't used brads (the real or the digital version) in ages!  So I plopped a few of those babies in and called it good!  I actually like them!  Now all I have to do is save this in Carlye's album... then change the bottom three pictures to apply to my other two daughters, Gemma and SarahLynn, change the journalling a bit, save 'em, and it's THREE layouts done, just like that!  Gotta love that!

Thanks for looking!  Have a fabulous weekend!

Happy Birthday Cupcake!

   

This is a cute girlie card!  I love it!  I haven't used my cupcake punch in way too long.  As soon as school is out and things settle down for the summer I am going to get down to my scrap room again and make something with this punch.  A little punch trick on this card is the scalloped edge, which I made with my corner rounder punch.

Hello!

I got the inspiration for this card off of the Stampin' Up! website.  It uses the adorable Funky Four stamp set.  I loved using the thin strip of cardstock instead of the ribbon... it was just that little something different.  (As well as the fact that at the time I had no Daffodil Delight ribbon!)  Anyway... cute, no?

Birthday Wishes

 I made this card a long time ago... I still really like it.  It's a pretty simple card if you need one in a hurry.  I'd try it again... with maybe a different colour combo.

MDS Monday 14

Happy Monday!  It's a holiday here, Victoria Day, so I'm just going to quickly post my layout here and go have fun for the day!

I played along at MDS Monday with the sketch challenge MSDM14.  You could either make a card or a scrapbook layout, and that is what I chose to do.

Here's the awesome sketch...

And here's my layout.  These are pictures of my youngest that we took last October in the backyard.  I've been wanting to scrapbook them using the Wonderfall leaf punches.  This was the first time that I've even used them!

I actually made a double layout, as there were something like 75 hilarious pictures to choose from, but I didn't post the other one here.  This is the one I used for the challenge.  

Thanks for looking!  Have a fabulous day!

SCIC #66 Mid-Month Sketch

I quickly whipped up a page in my MDS this morning.  Honestly it came together so quick... I sort of feel like I never really got to scrapbook at all!  I used the mid-month sketch inspiration on the Stampin Celebration blog.  I'm not sure about these sketches... they make me take a total departure from my normal... but that's okay, this can be the new normal!  It's really not a style that I come up with on my own... but I like the Love Letter DSP and the Attic Boutique embellishments go with it so well I couldn't resist.  And what would one of my pages be without one of the frames from the Downtown Grunge set, right?

Here's the sketch inspiration...

 And here's what I made...

My youngest is such a fun little thing... seriously.... the problem is she knows it too!  With two older sisters encouraging all her shenanigans (and sometimes taking part!) I am kept busy running after her.

Anyway...  thanks for looking.  Ladies at the SCIC blog thanks again for wonderful inspiration!  I think I might become a regular... it's SO addicting!

SCIC #66

I was working on this page in my oldest daughters album... and was pretty uninspired.  It didn't look too great really, but sometimes I really struggle with doing more than one or two pictures on a page, so whenever that happens I always console myself and say that not every layout has to be a work of art.... and I call it good and stop beating myself up!  But then I came across the Stampin' Celebration Inspiration Challenge blog and decided a redo of this page was in order!  I am so happy with the end result!

Here's the challenge picture I used...

And here is what I designed using the colours as inspiration.  I love the combo of Melon Mambo and Pumpkin Pie... and I was inspired to use the bright blooms because there is a very small vase of flowers on that table, and it reminded me of one of the bright blooms!  Hey... inspired is inspired.... whichever way you look at it!

Here's my layout...

Thank you ladies at the SCIC blog for fabulous inspiration.  Have a fantastic day!

Lovely As A Tree Reflection

I love this technique.  It has such a huge impact in person.  I must do this more often.  I used glossy paper (photo paper) and an acetate sheet.  There's a tutorial on SCS that tells you how to do this technique.  For the moon I used my circle punch on a post it note.  This is a fabulous card.

From Me To You

 This is a really fun card to make.  I used the (VERY old) So Many Sayings stamp set, which I had carefully cut all the sayings apart on, and had my husband cut the wood blocks into separate strips as well, and, the Good Neighbour stamp set from Sale-a-bration a few years ago!  A little sponging for the grass and the sky and you're good to go!

A Friend!

This card is a simple but beautiful card for your secret sister, or even for a different occasion, simply by changing the sentiment.  By changing the colour scheme you could also make it look masculine!

I used the Bliss stamp set to create the subtle background with Versamark ink.  The ribbon is non Stampin Up!  The sentiment is from the Simply Said stamp set and the focal image is from yet another stamp set, Pocket Silhouettes.

I Love You!

Here's another beautiful card, that is just so gorgeous in real life.  The picture really doesn't do it justice, and now that I am looking at it here, I am actually thinking it would be perfect to even send to my mom for Mother's Day.  

This was another card from my Artistic Avenger days!

Happy Holidays!

A Christmas card in May!  No rhyme or reason to the cards that come on this blog... just trying to get my cards on here for my own visual reference!   

This card is made with all SU! supplies.  It's one of the cards I made while on the DT from Carrie Gaskin.  It also uses the faux tile technique which ends up being really pretty when finished!

SBC Sketch 343

Okay, so I loved the challenge I did for MDSM yesterday so much, that I did another one today!  It really seemed to get the creative juices flowing.  I better be careful... this could become a habit... not necessarily a bad thing!

This time I played along with one of the May Challenges at Scrapbook Challenges.  It was the Sketch 343 challenge.  I did the one page layout version... and I am in love with the finished result!

Here's the sketch...

And here's my layout based on it!

Like I said, I love the finished result.  And what's better is that I had actually scrapbooked these pictures before, but did not love the result.  Look what a little sketch inspiration can do for you!

Happy Birthday!

OK, not my favourite card, but this is not a blog of my favourite cards, it is a record for me of what I've made.  There you have it!

MDS Monday!

Instead of a card, I've got a scrapbooking layout today!  I love to digital scrapbook!  My love affair with scrapbooking began when my now-almost-10 year old daughter was born... and it is still going strong.  Back then I thought digital scrapbooking was a cop-out.... what would be fun about that?  Give me buttons, glue and ribbon, and I was a happy girl.  But after a couple more cute little girls were born, I finally realized something had to change... I no longer had time for that kind of scrapbooking (or precious little of it anyway!)  I bought MDS since I was a SU! demo and I've been a goner since.

I. Absolutely. Love. It.

I have never played along on a challenge before, aside from the time I was on the Artistic Avenger's DT, but that was never scrapbooking, always cards.  So I hope I can figure out how to link this whole she-bang.  Anyway, enough blah, blah, blah... here's the sketch and challenge for MDSM # 13.

Make a page using the sketch below and monochromatic colors. (Definition: Monochromatic colors are all the colors (tints, tones, and shades) of a single hue.) 

 

And here's my take on the challenge! 

I used different opacities of Tempting Turquoise, some staples and stitching, and the frames from the Downtown Grunge kit.  Love those frames!  Hope this fulfills the challenge!  If nothing else, it's another layout done in my book... make that three books, since I can easily import this into all three girls' books!  Gotta love that!

Love Box

Adorable little box.  You could put anything in here from a piece of jewelry to candies.  Anything from soup to nuts... well, maybe not the soup part!  Super easy.  This is the 2-4-6-8 box, and the tutorial could be found anywhere online really, but mine came from Splitcoast Stampers.

Butterfly Elegance

A very elegant card suitable for a birthday, wedding or engagement.

Friend

Love this card... very simple, very cute.  Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

Look Who's Turning Two!

This card is such a cute one.  It uses a fabulous colour combo of Poppy Parade, Lucky Limeade, Wisteria Wonder and Island Indigo.  Great card for a little kids birthday or by changing the colour combo and sentiment it would be a fantastic baby card.  Love those little animals!

Sail Away

An easy card to mass produce.  I love that it is another masculine card... I always seem to run short of these.... or short of ideas for these anyway!