SC77I - My Friend

No tricks or jokes for you today, even though it is the first day of April.  But what I do have is a beautiful inspiration photo for you to kick off a new month at Stampin' Celebration.  Did you see all the beautiful entries last month?  Wow... and now we can't wait to see what you all come up with in April!

Look at this... 

Isn't adorable?  There are so many different directions and options you could take!  The colours for instance, or the bunny and the eggs for an easter themed card, or the tree stump and the vase of flowers... I let the colours, the tree stump and the butterflies and lace inspire me to come up with this card...

What do you think?  How did I do?

Now, we want to see what you will do with this inspiration photo!  Go check out the Stampin' Celebration blog and the other ladies beautiful projects, get crafty and then come back and link up your creations so we can see shat you've done, and for your chance to be the Pick of the Party for April!

Come back tomorrow for an exciting announcement!

xo Anita

Viva La Verve Sketch-Week #2

I also played along with the sketch for week 2 over at Viva La Verve.  Loved it!  It was so easy to put this card together, and I even pulled out some stuff that I hadn't played with in a loooong time! (If ever!)

OK, there's the sketch... and here's what I created!

My colour combo of Crumb Cake, Bermuda Bay and Pink Pirouette is just lovely.  Sort of a feminine, burlap, vintage-y vibe... at least I think so anyway!  I stamped my Hardwood on Whisper White in Crumb Cake ink.  The white doily received a sponging of Bermuda Bay ink. I used my Little Leaves die, and when I was getting that out, I found these flower dies... who knew?  They are from the Birds & Blooms Sizzlits set of dies.  I finished them off with some sponging for depth, added a few pearls, and called it done!

Thanks for looking! 

 xo Anita

Oh, Hello - DD#94

For this card I chose to play along with the Dynamic Duos.  They always seem to come up with awesome colour combos over there!

I wasn't too sure where to go with this one at first.  I wanted to go elegant (but not too!) and use the Lacy Brocade Folder for the dessert option, so this is what I came up with!

I started with Naturals White CS, layered with Black, then another Naturals CS run through the Big Shot with my favourite embossing folder.  I sponged More Mustard lightly over the embossing to give it a little more definition.  A simple fishtail banner, one of my Labels Framelits, my sentiment punched out with an oval punch, and I was done!  Let me know what you think!

xo Anita

To My Friend - PPA195

I finally played with my Hexagon Hive Framelit for the very first time!  I love that thing!  Now I just have to search around and see if there is a better way to get the paper to release from it!  Pretty finicky I tell ya!  Here's the challenge from the Pals Paper Arts I wanted to play along with this time!  I love the colours... they were perfect for my card!

Using my Big Shot and various punches, this card came together in almost no time at all!

I first stamped my Hardwood stamp on my So Saffron card base and another piece of cardstock that I then ran through my Big Shot with the Hexagon Hive!  I aligned it on my card base to match up the stamp, and adhered it with dimensionals.  I used my Little Leaves Sizzlits to cut a few little branches, stamped my Flower Shop flowers and punched them out with my Pansy Punch.  To finish it off I stamped my sentiment on a white banner.  Wah la...such a pretty card!

That's it for me!  xo Anita

Hello There!

I made this card on a base of Crushed Curry, which was a previous In Color, then retired and is now back in the Regals collection.  The ribbon is non SU! but matched perfectly. 

DD57, FMS91 - Inspired By Nature... Again!

Today's card features the Inspired By Nature (retired) stamp set from SU!  I played along with the Dynamic Duos  classy colour combo for this week's challenge, and paired it up with the sketch challenge over at Freshly Made Sketches.  Putting them together was easy.  I also added the Dynamic Duos 'dessert option' of a 'plant theme'.

Take a look at my card...

Stamps:  Inspired By Nature

Paper:  Pear Pizzazz, Basic Black, Very Vanilla, First Edition DSP

Ink:  Pear Pizzazz

Other Supplies:  Basic Black Taffeta Ribbon, Scallop Trim Border Punch

Thanks for looking!  Leave me a comment, letting me know what you think about my card.  I love hearing from you!

FM114, CCMC256

Today's card features a new-to-me technique.  The brick wall!  I've seen this technique before, but never really felt like trying it... too lazy I guess!  I was spurred on to try it at The Friday Mashup!  Their challenge this week was a sketch or the brick wall technique... or a mashup of both!  I went with the colour challenge at Create With Connie and Mary.  It's really beautiful!

 

I chose to mashup my challenge and do the sketch along with the brick wall technique.  It turned out perfectly using my CCMC colour combo as well.

Since I don't know yet what I will be using this card for, I went with no sentiment, instead opting to use a row of pearls.  I stamped my main image on First Edition DSP, and after cutting my 'bricks', I sponged them all with Early Espresso ink, mounted them on Very Vanilla, which I adhered to some Island Indigo DSP for a tiny border, and then finally adhered to Early Espresso CS.  I used my Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border Punch for a tiny peek of Island Indigo at the bottom.  Using my Early Espresso and Summer Starfruit markers to colour my image was a cinch and couldn't have worked out any nicer.  I love the look of it stamped on the First Edition.

Thanks for taking the time to look!  Leave me a comment.... I read and appreciate each and every one of them!  Have a great day!

Color Throwdown #246, The Paper Players #150

My card today is for two challenges.  Click on over to the Color Throwdown blog to see their awesome colour challenge #246, and then check out The Paper Players and their Bring on the Bling challenge #150.  

                         

 Honestly, I really find it a challenge to do two challenges at once.  I get sort of involved with the one and then the other isn't really working out, I forget something, or the whole card just isn't turning into what I have pictured in my head.  It's sort of stressful actually!  But with this card, I didn't have that at all!  At first the colours were giving me fits and I felt like scrapping the whole card, but suddenly I just seemed to pull it all together.  Then I looked at it and I loved it, but it still seemed to need just a little... you know.... something.  Pearls!  And then I remembered this challenge!  Couldn't have been more perfect really!  So that was that... and I love when that happens... and this card is just so gorgeous, I am entirely pleased with the way it all came together.

Here's the finished product, which I will give to a very special lady whose birthday is on Friday.  I hope she likes it.

Thanks for taking the time to look, and let me know what you think about my card.  Have a great day!

Freshly Made Sketches #90

I had some time to make a card this morning, and my starting point was this great sketch I found on the Freshly Made Sketches blog.  That, paired with a beautiful colour combination I spotted on page 105 in the new SU! catalogue, made my card come together surprisingly easy!

Here's the sketch for this week!

 

I started my card with a base of Summer Starfruit, did some very subtle spritzing on the background (so subtle in fact, that now that I see the picture, I see you don't even notice it... but it is there!) and layered some Comfort Cafe DSP and Night of Navy CS.  I stamped my vintage bicycle in embossing ink and used some Pool Party embossing powder to add a little zing.  In retrospect I wish I would have done that part a little different because the Pool Party is a little light against the white doily, but it still looks VERY pretty in real.  I finished with some Pumpkin Pie ribbon and a couple of Pool Party buttons and VOILA! a really, really nice card in not too much time at all!  The colour combo is stunning in real life.  I think I will try it on one of my next scrapbook layouts.

Here's my card...

Thanks for taking the time to look.  Have a fabulous Friday... and hopefully a restful weekend.  My husband is taking part in a local Father's Day Fishing Derby with our oldest daughter, so I am home with the two youngest.... and plan on making lots of cards and doing some scrapbooking... maybe  of the fishing derby photos!  We'll see if they catch anything!

Everyday Enchantment

Another Dawn Olchefske CASE.  This card is absolutely gorgeous in real life.  I made this for my mom (in-law) for her birthday. (Not her birthday card, but in a set of cards that I gifted to her!)

Happy Day To You

Another fun, easy card to make using the very first stamp set I ever bought from Stampin' Up!... Fun & Fast Notes.  My goal is to go through my (many!) stamp sets and use all the stamps there are to use!  With so many stamp sets, it's easy to forget about some and use my favourites.  That's my goal anyway, we'll see what happens with it!

3 Card Set

These have got to be the cutest little cards in the West.  The finished size is... I cannot remember!  Maybe 3x4 or so?  Making a little set of cards like this is a great way to use up little pieces and strips of leftover paper.

For the first one I used the Cheep Talk stamp set and my SAMJ to get the perfect placement of flowers on those branches.

This one below uses the Bugs and Kisses stamp set.  Used the SAMJ on this one too.

And for the third one I used the Cheep Talk set again.  And the SAMJ!

For all three cards I used a base of Bermuda Bay which was one of the In Colours then, and is now back in the SU! Brights collection!  Love it!

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!

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

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?

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!