Mary Jo's Sketch?!?!?

Happy Tuesday! I have quite a few question marks in my title because what started off as Mary Jo's Monday Lunchtime Sketch Challenge went a little off track...lol! After I had the card all glued together, I realized that I forgot to put the vertical strip that is shown on the left side of the sketch...ugh! (You'll just have to use your imagination and picture it there...lol!)

I started off with this Heather Ellis/My Favorite Things Pure Innocence image. She's colored up with Copic Markers (BG000, BG10, BG11, E000, E00, E01, E29, E37, R20, R27, R29, Y21, Y32, YG13, YG17, and the Colorless Blender) and I used my Nesties for the rectangles. The patterned paper is more retired Stampin' Up pieces from my stash with some Riding Hood Red, Chocolate Chip, and retired Cool Caribbean accent layers. A touch of ribbon, a pair of buttons, and some different stitches done with my Janome Sew Mini complete my card.

I'm so glad that you could drop by this evening for a visit! Thanks a bunch! I'll see you again soon...Toodles! :D

Fun in the Sun!

Happy Monday Everyone! I hope that you had a great weekend! We spent yesterday at a pool party with a bunch of family friends. After a day of soaking up the sun and cooling off in the water, I was inspired to start this card. It is for Jen's Sketch For You To Try over on her blog. Her SFYTT Sisters (who has also provided me with an abundance of inspiration) have had some beautiful creations with sweet mermaid images from a company called Your Next Stamp. I don't have any stamps from this company, YET...lol! However, I do have this delightful mermaid image from Pink Cat Studio so I set off to work. My little mermaid girl was colored up with Copic Markers (B0000, B02, C1, C3, C5, E000, E00, E01, E29, E37, R20, Y21, Y35, YR00, YR15, and YR18.) Then I applied Star Dust Stickles to give her lots of sparkle. The colors came from a piece of Crate paper that I found in my stash. To go with the sketch, I added a piece of Making Memories polka dotted paper and a few Making Memories buttons. I used my Janome Sew Mini for the zig-zag stitching that attaches these papers to some Stampin' Up Pumpkin Pie. I also used a square of Pumpkin Pie with my Nesties to get the scalloped square. The blue square is a piece of Core'dinations card stock that I embossed with my 'Bug. Then I added a sentiment from A*Muse to finish off the sketch.

Enjoy your Monday and thank you so much for stopping by for a visit...Toodles! :D

An Inspiration and a Sketch Challenge!

Happy Friday Everyone! I hope that you had a wonderful week! We have been blessed with some beautiful weather here in New England...very hot and very humid! Luckily, we have been swimming everyday and just enjoying all that summer has to offer. I've been getting a lot of stamping time in this week too. I'm very thankful for that! For today's creation, (I actually posted two other times this week...lol!) the Blogger's Challenge players were given the above photograph as inspiration. From that photograph, I created this card...

I was really inspired by the colors in the bedding (a teal blue, chocolate brown, a bit of yellow, and a touch of green and pink). This week's Wednesday Stamp Club from My Favorite Things is a sketch challenge, so I started with that and from there I added this MFT Pure Innocence image called Happy Mail. She's colored up with Copic Markers (BG11, BG13, C1, C3, E000, E00, E01, E25, E29, R20, R27, R29, RV11, RV34, Y21, Y32, and the Colorless Blender). Following the sketch, I used some Stampin' Up patterned papers from an older Simply Scrappin' kit. The colors in the paper were a great match to the bedding. I added an MFT Die-namics sun of So Saffron to my card with a button for the center and then I added a few Making Memories brads. The Chocolate Chip panel was embossed in my 'Bug for some added texture. For more inspiration with this fun bedding, you can check out what the other Ladies from the Blogger's Challenge group have come up with here. Enjoy your weekend and thank you for stopping by for a visit...Toodles! :D

Color Throwdown #100

Like I said last week, part of my goal this summer has been to stamp more and to participate in some of the challenges that I can't always seem to do during the school year. I always enjoy the color challenges that the Color Throwdown team comes up with, so today I made time to try out their 100th challenge! This week's colors are some of my favorites...Regal Rose, Certainly Celery, Real Red, and Baja Breeze. You can find their challenge here if you'd like to join in too. I went with a clean and simple design. The sentiment and leaves are from Papertrey Ink's Everyday Button Bits and then I used some buttons from my stash (Foofoola, American Crafts, and Making Memories) to coordinate with the challenge colors. I added a piece of Certainly Celery Twill to finish this design off. I hope that you have a beautiful day and thanks so much for stopping by for a visit...Toodles! :D

More Challenges!

This evening I decided to try my hand at the Guest Designer Challenge for My Favorite Things! In honor of Independence Day here in the United States and Canada Day in Canada, we were to make a card using red and blue. The other challenge for me was to pull out my Janome Sew Mini and try some actual sewing on a card for a change. It's not perfect, but not bad for my very first attempt! (If I do say so myself...lol!) A huge thanks to Gina K. and StampTV for helping me figure out how to use the machine.

My main image is from MFT and it is called Start the Day with WHEE! Then I used one of the sentiments from another MFT set called Tree Swing. I used my Copic Markers to color everything up (B0000, B21, B23, B24, E000, E00, E01, E25, E29, E33, E40, E42, E44, R20, R27, R29, YG13, YG17, and the Colorless Blender.) The patterned paper is from Scenic Route. My Nesties worked well for the circle and scallop circle. I also used my Die-namics Jumbo Scallop Border from MFT and dressed that up with a few buttons and a touch of gingham ribbon.

Have a lovely evening in your neck of the woods! Try to stay cool...we are having a heat wave here in New England! Thanks so much for visiting...Toodles! :D

Happy Birthday America!

Fourth of July weekend is upon us here in the United States, and our Blogger's Challenge for today is a patriotic theme. I started off with my little Biker Bee from Stampendous. He's colored up with Copic Markers (B00, B12, B14, C3, R20, R27, R29, Y21, and the Colorless Blender) and I added a little touch of Star Dust Stickles for some sparkle. I used my Nesties for the square and the scallop square. The gingham papers are from A Muse and they are accented with Stampin' Up's Real Red. The happy birthday sentiment is from the My Favorite Things set Little Loveosaurus. I finished this one off with some American Crafts buttons and a strip of ribbon from my stash. I'm off to check out what the other Ladies from the Blogger's Challenge group have come up with. You can find the links to their blogs here. Have a beautiful day and thanks so much for stopping by...Toodles! :D

Double Challenge!

One of my goals this summer is to do more challenges. So for this creation, I combined two of them. Jen Del Muro always has fantastic sketches over on her blog, but during the school year, I can't always find the time to participate. I made sure I had time this week and that was my starting off point for this card. You can find her sketch challenge for this week here. My other challenge was from Kim over at My Favorite Things. We needed to use cork or felt. I have been wanting to try cork for some time now, so that is what I went with. I actually bought a four foot roll of it at Home Depot. It is Con-Tact Brand drawer liner and the bonus is that it has a self-adhesive backing!! It worked great with my MFT Die-namics and my 'Bug, so I'm thrilled! My other details include my wonderful image from My Favorite Things - Fred Bear and the Butterfly. He's colored up with Copic Markers (E30, E31, E33, G21, G24, R27, R29, Y21, and Y32). The patterned paper is from Cosmo Cricket and it's layered onto a piece of Riding Hood Red. I added some matching May Arts ribbon, a few buttons from stash, and some Star Dust Stickles to finish this one off. Hope you like it! Thanks so much for stopping by...Toodles! :D

Blue, Kiwi, and White!

Happy Friday! Here we are...the start of Summer!! School ended for us here this week and I'm so mixed up with the days that I didn't even realize that Friday was already upon us...oh my, what was I thinking!!! So, very quickly, I came up with this card for this week's Blogger's Challenge. We are to use the colors blue, kiwi, and white. I went with Stampin' Up's Baja Breeze for the Blue and I ended up using Old Olive because it was the closest color that I had to kiwi. Olive...kiwi...they are both fruits so I thought that it would be alright...lol! :D The blossom is from Stampin' Up's Bella Blossoms (retired) and the sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. I found the scrap of patterned paper in my stash. It's also from Stampin' Up. To finish it off, I added some faux stitching to the Baja Breeze strip (it also added a little more white). As I said, this was a very quick card to put together, so that's about it for all of the details. For more inspiration with this color challenge, you can click here to see what the other Ladies from the group have come up with. Thank you so very much for stopping by for a visit. I'm looking forward to having some extra stamping time now that school is out. Hope to see you soon...Toodles! :D

It's a Garden Party!

Happy Friday everyone! I'm running a little later than usual for this week's Blogger's Challenge because I went to see Toy Story 3 this evening! What a fun movie! We all enjoyed it. However, it is still Friday, so I'm not technically late...lol! Our challenge this week is a wonderful sketch from Lisa Somerville. She always has something terrific for us and this week is no exception. I started off with Birthday Princess from My Favorite Things. She is paper pieced with some Garden Variety paper from Cosmo Cricket and colored up with Copic Markers (C0, E000, E00, E01, E29, E33, E35, R24, R27, R29, Y21, Y32, YG13, and YG17). Her birthday crown needed a little bit of bling so I added a few pieces of Creative Candy from Amuse. The sketch calls for an oval in the center of the card, so I used my Nesties for the oval and the scalloped oval (Stampin' Up's Riding Hood Red). The rest of the patterned papers are also from Cosmo Cricket. I didn't have any red brads so I used Copic Marker R29 on a few purple colored ones that I didn't really need, and what do you know...red brads!!! The reason for this fun and summery color combination is that this is also my contribution to the Color Challenge over on the My Favorite Things blog. I'm very excited to see what the other Ladies have come up with for this sketch. You can find the links to their blogs in my right side bar. Enjoy the rest of your evening, and thanks so much for stopping by...Toodles! :D