Great Challenge...My Not So Great Card!

This week's Blogger's Challenge is to create a birthday card. A great challenge because we always need an extra birthday card or two. Right? But, I'm just not in love with my card. Normally, I don't post the creations that I'm not really happy with for all of Blog Land to see, but I've got a headache right now and this is the best that I can come up with. My only consolation is that this card will be for a little boy's upcoming birthday party and chances are it will end up getting thrown out...lol! I love the image (Stampendous) and the striped, sparkly paper (Debbie Mumm's Baby Boy) and all of the colors, but for some reason, I'm just not in love with this creation. I'm sure some of you out there can relate. Right? Maybe it's the headache talking...lol!

The other details include a Photo Corner and Oval Punches, some Making Memories brads, a couple rows of Faux Sewing, a Papertrey Ink sentiment, and quite a bit of Star Dust Stickles. Please be sure to click on the Blogger's Challenge logo in my right sidebar for more Birthday card inspiration. Maybe I'll have the chance to give this challenge another try over the weekend! Thanks so much for stopping by...Toodles! :D

My Attempt At These Two Challenges...lol!!

This card is supposed to be for the Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge and for the "Use Hearts" challenge over on the High Hopes Blog. I had this "I Love Moo!" idea in my head, but I had to somehow incorporate the hearts. Apparently, I do not have any heart shaped brads, buttons, eyelets, chipboard, or punches...lol! So I went looking through my collection and finally found some heart stamps (thank goodness!!) I would have liked to used more hearts in this design, but sometimes, less is more. This seemed best. Now onto the sketch. Well, I ended up gluing my panel onto the card base the wrong way and then I had to put the image on an angle for it to look somewhat decent. Oh yeah, I had to change the original placement of the sentiment too! You'd think by now I'd be able to follow a sketch...lol! I've just recently started participating in Julee's wonderful challenges. I really enjoy them (even when I change them up a bit...lol!) High Hopes Stamps are my favorites for watercoloring! Their images are absolutely darling! I'm glad that I've discovered their challenges now too! A girl can never have too many great challenge choices now, can she? :D Here are a few details about my card. I used Stampin' Up's Buckaroo Blue (retired) and Chocolate Chip cardstock along with a double sided sheet of Chatterbox Designer Paper. Of course the cowboy image is from High Hopes Rubber Stamps. I inked him up with Black Stazon and watercolored everything with my Stampin' Up inks. The little heart is from Stampin' Up's Short and Sweet set. The sentiment was made on the computer. The other details include some faux sewing and a scalloped circle of Chocolate Chip with some pierced holes. There you have it...my attempt at these two fantastic challenges. Hope you are warm and cozy in your neck of the woods. Thanks so much for stopping by...Toodles! :D

Blogger's Challenge!

Happy Friday! I hope you are all doing well! I have a Blogger's Challenge card to share with you today. This week's challenge is to use Black, Kiwi, White or Vanilla, and Red (I went with Riding Hood Red). Perfect colors for Valentine's Day. My main image is from Penny Black. It's called, "Fragile"...lol! I colored him up with watercolor pencils, Kiwi Kiss ink, and Riding Hood Red ink. Then I added a whole lot of Star Dust Stickles to his precious package and the three little brads in the corner. My other accents include faux stitching, Riding Hood Red Designer Prints paper, swirl and polka dot ribbon, and a sweet little heart charm (from Mike's) that says, "Love". For more inspiration with this color combination, please check out what the ladies in the Blogger's Challenge group have come up with here. Thanks so much for stopping by...Toodles! :D

That Was Sweet Of You!

Happy Wednesday! Today was a day that I just needed to stamp!!! I'm sure you can relate! I came home from work, made a yummy beef stew for supper, and then went to my Art Room to relax. This is what I ended up creating. I used Julee's Mojo Monday Sketch and the colors came from this week's Color Throw Down. I combined Stampin' Up's Priceless set and the retired set Sweet of You (sentiment) with little touches of faux stitching here and there. An American Crafts black button and a smidgen of May Arts ribbon complete my card.

I also have a little bit of happy news to share. Last week, I was chosen to be in Kristina Werner's Color Inspiration Round-Up (Woo-Hoo!) and Shelley German was sweet enough to pass along a blogging award to me! I'm a lucky girl! Thanks so much for thinking of me! :D

The way that the blogging award works is that I can now pass it along to some pretty fabulous bloggers. So here goes, in no particular order, I nominate...Clara Kubert, Dawn Easton, Tracy Clemente, Nancy Pope, Kathie Bailey, LeAnne Pugliese, Anne Sanborn, Nikki Fairbairn, and Kerry Donovan-Casey for the Butterfly Award. Thank you for all of the beautiful inspiration Ladies and thanks so much to you for stopping by this evening...Toodles! :D

Birthdays, Babies, and Blogger's Challenge!

Hello and Happy Friday! I hope that everyone is staying warm if the bitter cold has hit your area. It has certainly arrived here in New England!

For today's post, I have two cards for you. This week's Blogger's Challenge is "Same, but different". We could use different layouts or the same stamps, or different colors, or well...you get the idea. I went with the same layout for both of my cards and used different colors and stamps. My first card uses Kristina Werner's Color Inspiration. Her colors this week are Ruby Red, Pretty in Pink, Pumpkin Pie and Whisper White. I really liked the card that I created with her colors last week, so I thought that I'd try again this week. I used Crazy for Cupcakes and the set Short and Sweet for the sentiment. I used my Scor-Pal for the quilted Pretty in Pink layer. The scalloped rectangle was made with my Nesties, and I have quite a bit of Star Dust Stickles on the icing of the cupcakes for a lot of sparkle. I included some Pumpkin Pie grosgrain and a tiny piece of May Arts striped ribbon. This card will be perfect for one of the teachers at work that just celebrated her 40th birthday.


My second card is for one of my best friends. She and her husband just welcomed their second son to their family, so this card is to welcome Baby Harrison into the world! The color theme for this card is Bashful Blue, Ballet Blue, and Certainly Celery. I kept all of the elements the same as the first card, except for different stamps (Nursery Necessities) for the main image, different colors, and I used the ticket punch in the corners with a few pearl accents.

I'm anxious to see what the other ladies have come up with. You can view their wonderful creations here. Have a wonderful weekend, and thanks so much for stopping by...Toodles! :D

Triple Challenge!!!

Well...Happy Saturday! I'm sorry that I'm a day late with this week's Blogger's Challenge. It's been one of those weeks! We are gearing up for a snow storm today and we're still trying to get the ice off the driveway from Wednesday's ice storm! I love the snow! It's the ice that I can do without!

I'm combining this week's Blogger's Challenge with two other challenges. I've always seen the beautiful color combinations that Kristina Werner comes up with and I love the Mojo Monday sketches that Julee Tilman comes up with but I've yet to try either one yet. So in keeping with my New Year's resolutions, I've decided to try Kristina's color inspiration for this week and this past Monday's sketch from Julee. I just rolled everything into one card...lol!

This week's Blogger's Challenge is to use designer paper. I went with Stampin' Up's Summer Picnic (the Pumpkin Pie panel) and the Designer Print Series paper in Old Olive. The card base is Chocolate Chip. I also used some Chocolate Chip grosgrain and a little piece of May Arts polka dot ribbon. I colored up my cupcake with Baja Breeze, Pumpkin Pie, and Old Olive inks. Then I added Star Dust Stickles to make it sparkle. I found a button in my stash that match Baja Breeze perfectly! I used a very thin strip of Old Olive card stock for the thread. Then I was fortunate enough to find brads that matched Baja Breeze too. What luck! I used my two oval punches to layer the sentiment. I'm happy with the way this all turned out. Too bad I didn't have it ready for you yesterday...lol! If you'd like more ideas with designer paper, then click on the Blogger's Challenge logo on the right side of my blog.

Thanks for the wonderful sketch Julee. I can certainly see myself using it again. Thanks for this terrific color combination Kristina. I love it! Have a wonderful weekend! Thank you for stopping by...Toodles! :D

Mary Jo's Monday Lunchtime Sketch Challenge

It is well past lunchtime here, but maybe I could call this the dinnertime sketch...lol! Every week I see fabulous cards created with Mary Jo's Weekly Sketch Challenge but I'm not typically home around lunchtime on Mondays, so I've never really had the chance to play. I wasn't home at lunchtime today either, but thought that Mary Jo wouldn't mind if I did her challenge at dinnertime instead. Isn't this a fun sketch? She has dozens of them. In fact she has 51 of them over on her blog! A few of my New Year's Resolutions in the stamping department include getting better organized (about 90% there...I'll share some pictures soon), when I finish creating, cleaning up right away (I truly can't stand a mess!), using many of the things that I've already bought (like these beautiful stamps designed by Anna Wight), and just making more time for doing what I love...stamping! My card starts off with a base of Old Olive, and a panel of Close to Cocoa. The olive square has three strips of Old Olive Designer Series Paper. The three olive buttons are from American Craft with white thread going through the button holes. The main image is from Anna's Give Thanks set. You can find it on the Whippersnapper Designs website. The tree was inked up with Close to Cocoa ink and I colored up the leaves with my Old Olive marker. Next, I used my Nesties to cut out the oval. I added a Making Memories clip with a piece of Old Olive ribbon to the top of the oval. The little "Thank You" charm is from the wedding section at Michaels. I just love how this all came together! That doesn't happen too often...lol! Thanks for such a fabulous sketch Mary Jo, and thanks so much for stopping by...Toodles! :D

After About Six Hours...

This is what I came up with. And this isn't even my design...lol! I cased this from Marika over on Splitcoaststampers . This week's Blogger's Challenge is to use Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze, and Red (I went with Ridinghood Red). The first card started off with the cute little flower that comes with the Happy Heart Day set, but after numerous tries, I just couldn't get my design to work. Then I went over to SCS and was browsing the galleries and I found Marika's lovely creation. I changed just a few things and then viola!...my card for this week's Blogger's Challenge. I used the Designer Series Paper (Baja Breeze) instead of the Bella Rose paper. I went with May Arts Polka Dot Ribbon instead of Chocolate Brown Grosgrain, and I added a couple rows of faux stitching to my card. Marika's card was just too pretty to change too many things! For more inspiration with this pretty color combination, be sure to check out what the other ladies in the group have come up with. Have a Happy Friday, and thanks so much for stopping by...Toodles! :D