Hello, You-CCMC303, PP196

Hello there!  I'm back with a soft and pretty floral card today.  I used my Regarding Dahlias stamps to play along with a couple challenges this morning.  I was inspired by the sketch at the Create with Connie and Mary Challenge, and the challenge at The Paper Players was CAS Floral, so that worked perfectly for my card as well.

Check out my card!

I started with a Blushing Bride card base.  I stamped two dahlias in Versamark, one on Calypso Coral and the other on Crisp Cantaloupe. I heat embossed them both with white embossing powder and fussy cut them out.  After adding a few banners in Brushed Gold CS and Crisp Cantaloupe CS, I used some dimensionals to pop up one of the flowers and banners.  I stamped my sentiment in Gold Encore ink, and added a few gold sequins to finish it all off.  Perfect!  Go check out the two challenge sites and be inspired to play along yourself!  So much fun!

xo Anita

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

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

Wonderful You - JUGS#222, CMCC#2

Mr. Brown came to the door yesterday with a big ol' box of goodies for me... so I sat down to play this morning.  I turned to the JUGS sketch challenge and used the fun colour combo at Colour Me...!

I used the Happy Watercolor stamp set and the Decorative Dots Folder from my box of new goodies and then the Loving Thoughts stamp set from the SU! catalogue.  Oh, I also used my new triangle punch for something.... can you tell what?  I flagged the ends of my sentiment banner with it!  This works even slicker (is that a word?) than the square punch does!  Perfect!

Check it out!

I used my embossing folder on a piece of vellum!  Love that look!  For my sentiment, I heat embossed with white powder on a Marina Mist banner!  I also scored and folded the banner so that the middle part would be popped up a bit off of the card!  Really pretty!  The colours on here are not nearly as vibrant as they are in real life... unfortunately it was a rainy day, so my lighting wasn't the greatest and I had to use the flash:(  

My card turned out just beautiful, and I can't wait to see who I will send it to!

Seeyou later!  xo Anita

Oh, Hello - DD#76

Happy Wednesday!  I had a wee bit of time (my daughter decided one hour was long enough to nap!) this morning to make a card, and this is what I came up with.  Honestly, I think it took like 45 minutes total! (choosing stamps, supplies, layout, Dynamic Duo colours, and the execution of it)  That's not a bad way to spend 45 minutes!  I loved it!

It's really a very pretty card isn't it?

 

 

I LOVE this embossing folder.  So elegant!  And the colour combo of Wisteria Wonder and Perfect Plum is just stunning.  Perfect Plum is not one of my most used colours (for that matter Wisteria Wonder isn't either!), but together they are great!  That's the thing I love about challenges.  They make you do stuff you wouldn't normally do!  Which is not necessarily always a good thing... but in card-making and stamping... it's great!

 

OK... time for lunch!  Seeyou tomorrow I hope!

 

xo Anita

Comfort Cafe Scraps Cards!

Good morning!  Monday is off to a great start so far!  Lots of chores out of the way already, and here I am, on here, avoiding the rest of them!  Here are some more cards I made using scraps of the Comfort Cafe DSP.  I love these kinds of cards to use up a variety of leftover pieces of paper, too small to do much of anything else with!  Perfect!  Here they are!  There's a bunch of them!!!

I did some sponging around the edges on this one, for some added depth!

 

Starburst or sunburst cards are so easy to make as well.  I followed Dawn Olchefske's video tutorial... and before I knew it I was churning these babies out!

 

The two cards above are very similar of course... I just made it mailable by switching out the dahlias for ribbon and brads!

Same story for the two above!  The one with buttons isn't really mailable, so I used a twine bow, which looks great as well!

 

I really like the simple 'thinking of you' card above.  Very easy and very nice.  By switching up the sentiment you could also have some really nice notecards or 'just because' cards!

This one is also really not that mailable, but I switched it up on my cards last Friday by tying a piece of ribbon around the sentiment flags, instead of the button and linen thread!

Hope you enjoyed todays cards!  I CASEd them all from here and there around the web... just collecting ideas for scraps of DSP!  Just sharing the love!

Be sure to come back tomorrow for my Stampin' Celebration Inspiration Challenge post.  It's an absolutely awesome photo inspiration challenge!  See you then!

xo Anita

Spice Cake Scraps Cards

Happy Friday!  Finally!  This week has been crazy and I am soooo glad it is almost over!  As promised I have some cards that you can easily whip up using your scraps of DSP.  I needed to have some cards on hand for myself and these were a cinch to whip up in a flash!  Let's get right to it!

All my cards were made in no time at all.... and I actually used the basic layout and made another set using different DSP!  I'll show you those in the next couple days.

Have a great weekend everybody!

xo Anita

JUGS206, HSSCC168

Hello again!  I'm back for just a quick sec before I go round up all the school kids in the bus again!  My little junior pre-schooler is all tuckered out after her morning at preschool, so I tucked her happily in bed and there she shall remain till I wake the little sweetie!  Works perfectly for me... more time "working" in my office!

I really wanted to play along at the "Just Us Girls" challenge site this week.  They had a great technique that I wanted to give a whirl, and I loved Marisa Ritzen's card that she made using it, so I went right ahead and used the same stamp set.  Love that set, by the way!   I have followed Marisa's blog for a few years and always love her cards... and she's a Beautiful British Columbian.... just like me!  Just an hour or so down the road!

Anyway... on to what you are here for!  Here's my card!

I used the colours from the Hand Stamped Sentiments challenge.  I could have gone Christmas with them, but decided to be different!  Flowers that I stamp are the only ones that survive around me... I have definitely not inherited my mother's green thumb!  My husband is the gardener around here, and if I do happen to touch something in the garden... it seriously dies!  Failure to thrive or something!

The grid technique was really fun to do... the end result is somewhat imperfect when you stamp over it... which is really quite perfect for me!  I stamped the grass in Baked Brown Sugar very lightly, this is like third generation stamping!  I coloured the flowers with my SU! markers and did the whole "huffing" thing... which made me feel somewhat light headed!  It's a big stamp!  Some ruffled trim and ribbons, a sentiment from the Six-Sided Sampler on a flag banner.... and I was done!  Easy peasy!

    

 

I have also decided to try out for the JUGS design team.  I love being crafty and getting inspired by other people, and like to think that maybe others could be inspired by me!  Isn't that what this is all about?  Sharing our love of papercrafting, learning by doing and helping others love it as well?  I also love all the new 'friends' I make by doing this!  I love to share and share what I love!  

Wish me luck!

Thanks for looking!  Have yourself a fabulous day!

xo Anita

My Friend - DD #70

Hey everyone!  I've got a simple but beautiful card to show you today.

I haven't done watercolouring in a while, and I've forgotten how relaxing it is!  It is so easy to do and your finished card has so much impact... I've really got to try to do this more often!  

Take a look!

I used the colours Pistachio Pudding and So Saffron along with my Pleasant Poppies stamp.  A little ruffled trim and some ribbon peeking out from underneath my sentiment... and voila...  done, and done!

I am linking up to the fabulous Dynamic Duos challenge today, since that is where I received my colour inspiration from!  Love their colour combos.... 

Thanks for peeking in!  It's almost Friday!  Yay!

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. 

For You

Hi Mom!  Another gorgeous card for today!

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!)

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

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.