Cajun Double Back Sunflower

Happy Halloween all, somewhat late!! Hope you had a great night! I miss the days of trick or treating and handing out candy, yet it's nice just to be home and do what I need to do! Living in the country now, Trick or Treaters at the door have never happened. And, my boys are too old to go out! and, I'm OK with that :)

I played in the stamp room tonight-motivated to get a few cards done by ideas that have been running around in my head. That sounds like a bad thing-but trust me-it's all good!! :) LOVE being back in creative mode!! Gotta get "the" Christmas card on the to do list!!

Here is one that I did tonight! Inspired by Dawn Olchefske over at DO Stamping. She did a post recently on using Double Backgrounds. Of course she used the Sunflower so I HAD to give it a try!!

This is very similar to her card, but I did change a few things! My card base is Cajun Craze with an Early Espresso accent layer behind the Crumb Cake background. On the background, I stamped the saying from Pursuit of Happiness in Cajun on the lower right corner. Then, I inked the En Francais background in Crumb Cake and stamped on the left side of the card. Over that I stamped the Sunflower inked with Cajun Craze. I attached the Crumb cake layer to the Early Espresso. I then knotted a Crumb cake ribbon at the edge of the background stamps, and added 3 Metallic brads to the top right corner. Attach that layer to the background and done!

Pretty simple, yet VERY wow!!

Thanks for stopping by today! Back soon with more creations :)

Sketch Frenzy Friday 072712

Happy Friday all! Hope you've had a GREAT week! Still too hot and too dry here as I type this-hoping and PRAYING for rain!! It is in the area tonight, just not here. Yet.

Time for another round of Sketch Frenzy Friday!! Here is the card I came  up with

based on this sketch by Patrice Herrera

As usual, I did not give this card the time it deserved. I'm happy with it, but always think it could have been better :)

One of my customers asked about the Paper Daisies at my Open House, and it got me to thinking about them. Yes, I know they've been there for a while, I just haven't considered using them for anything. Thanks Joey for putting them back on my radar!! I decided they were the perfect element for this sketch!! My colors are Not Quite Navy, So Saffron and Pool Party. Thanks Color Coach! I stamped the So Saffron background in So Saffron withe the Distressed Dots background stamp. Love the new ink pads for backgrounds!! Great coverage with very little effort!! I stamped on the flowers with Not Quite Navy ink using one of the circle from Circle Circus. I sponged the edges lightly with So Saffron, added a Pool Party brad to the center, and attached at the end of a Not Quite Navy Taffeta Ribbon. The saying is from Pursuit of Happiness.

Thanks all for stopping by today! Continue on our tour by clicking HERE to see what Kim has created this week. Make sure you stop over by the main SFF blog and play along!! We LOVE to see your creations!!

Sketch Frenzy Friday 033012

Happy Friday all! Wow, how did it get to be the last Friday of March already?!? Spring has arrived for sure here in Nebraska-maybe a little too much so! It's been awfully warm for this early!!

Anyway, on to the main attraction!! The Sketch Frenzy Friday challenge and creation of the week! Here is my card

based on this sketch by Tammy Fite!

I played with the Sneak Peak products available during April: the Summer Smooches DSP and Bright Blossoms stamp set! Fun fun!!

The card base is Island Indigo with a Daffodil Delight border behind the DSP background of Daffodil and Indigo. Across the edge of the background I attached 3 ribbons like the sketch. I used two of the new Daffodil Delight Seam Binding (another Sneak Peak item available during April) and one of the Indigo Island Ruffled Ribbon. I had to modify the sketch a tad as I couldn't get three images to fit, but I think the two works just fine! I used markers to ink the stamps, stamped on Whisper White, and layered onto Island Indigo. The saying is from Pursuit of Happiness.

Thanks for stopping by! Continue on your SFF Tour by clicking HERE to see what Kim has created this week. Remember, all the members blogs are linked in my right side-bar if you hit a speed bump anywhere along the way.

Click HERE to shop my online store 24/7!!

Mixed Bunch Royalty Sunshine

Took a little time to play tonight after spending most of the day doing paperwork I've neglected during the year. Oops :) Stampin' Royalty has a picture inspiration challenge this week, and this idea has been running around in my head for a few days. 

Here is the challenge picture

and my creation. I knew the minute I saw the picture I was doing something with the Mixed Bunch Flowers. Great new set!!

The colors are Marina Mist and Daffodil Delight. Think I'm ready for Spring-too much blah outside right now!! Card base is Marina Mist with a Daffodil Delight accent layer behind the background Daffodil Delight DSP dot print. I stamped two of the bold flowers in Daffodil, and two in Marina Mist and punched with the Blossom Punch. Same with the centers but punched with the 1" circle punch. Then I pulled out buttons (from the Subtles & Brights sets) in the same colors and added White Bakers Twine to the center of each. The saying is from Pursuit of Happiness and was stamped in Marina Mist on the Daffodil DSP. The flowers were all attached with dimensional, the Marina ones first, then the Daffodil ones. Love it-Bright and Cherry!!

Click HERE to shop my online store 24/7!!

French Foliage again!

Since I already had it out, and I found another "Fall" challenge over at Hand Stamped Sentiments, I decided to make another card with French Foliage. I think it may be my all time favorite leaf set!! So easy to work with!!

I flipped through the Color Coach and found a good "Fall" set: Elegant Eggplant, Garden Green & More Mustard. I added a little River Rock too. Card base is Elegant Eggplant with a More Mustard layer behind a Naturals Ivory background. On the background I stamped the large leaf in Elegant Eggplant, middle leaf in Garden Green and small leaf in More Mustard. Then I added splatter dots over it all with River Rock. I sponged the edge, attached a Scallop Dots Eggplant ribbon upside down across the center, and attached to the More Mustard. The saying, from Pursuit of Happiness, was stamped in Elegant Eggplant on Naturals Ivory with two small leaves in More Mustard and dots in River Rock. It is layered onto Elegant Eggplant and attached with dimensionals over the ribbon. For accent, I added two Antique Brads, one on each side of the saying.

Thanks for stopping by today!! 

Click HERE to Shop My Store NOW!!

SU! Catalog Items used: 121166 French Foliage * 121970 Pursuit of Happiness * 105126 Elegant Eggplant Card Stock * 100946 More Mustard Card Stock * 101849 Naturals Ivory Card Stock * 103162 More Mustard Classic Ink * 105210 Elegant Eggplant Classic Ink * 102272 Garden Green Classic Ink * 109010 River Rock Classic Ink * 124143 Elegant Eggplant 1/2" Scallop Dots Ribbon * 117273 Antique Brads * 101620 Stamping Sponges * 104430 Stampin' Dimensionals 

French Foliage SR88

Don't fall off your chair anyone!! I stamped just for fun!! YEAH!! I saw this great color challenge last week over at Stampin' Royalty and new immediately that I needed to do it, and that I needed to pull out French Foliage!! It took me until today to get it done!!

Here are the colors:

And here is what I came up with!!

I'm missed using this set! And it's starting to feel like fall around here. Well, not exactly today-it's 90 something and windy. But back to the 70's tomorrow!

Back to the card! The base is Concord Crush with an accent layer of Tangerine Tango behind the stamped background. On Naturals White card stock, I stamped the leaves in Concord Crush, Daffodil Delight & Tangerine Tango. Lastly I added the "splatter" image in Certainly Celery, some full strength, some stamped off once. Click to enlarge the photo if you can't see the Celery-it's pretty light! The edge was sponged with Certainly Celery before tying the Daffodil Delight ribbon around and attaching to the card base. I had more ribbon than usual, so I attempted a bow and it worked first try so I left it!! The saying is from Pursuit of Happiness and was stamped in Concord Crush. The Daffodil leaf was added as well as some Celery splatters and a sponged Celery edge. It is layered onto Concord Crush and attached with dimensionals over the ribbon.

Thanks for stopping by today! I will be back with a new ColorLab challenge on Thursday and Sketch Frenzy Friday on Friday if not before!!

Click HERE to Shop My Store NOW!!

Sketch Frenzy Friday 090211

Howdy all!! Welcome to Friday!! Sorry to have been absent from stamping & blogging all week! Taking a vacation I guess :) But, Friday means another Sketch Frenzy Friday sketch & Mini tour so back to stamping for me!! And, it's my sketch this week too! Fun, fun!!

Here is the card I created

based on this sketch I also created!!

When creating the sketch I had several of these fun new backgrounds in mind. Well, Medallion was around last year, but Hello Doily, Sunflower & Sweet Floral are new. So much more than a "background" and so much fun to work with!! I chose the Sunflower to play with tonight. The card base is Soft Suede Textured with accent layers of More Mustard and Cherry Cobbler. The Sunflower was stamped in Black Stazon on Confetti Cream card stock. I colored the Sunflower with Watercolor Crayons in More Mustard, Cherry Cobbler &  Soft Suede. I tried to replicate an actual sunflower that I grew this year that had a ring of red among the yellow. I first colored in the front petals with More Mustard. Next I went over the background ones (they appear black in the picture) with Cherry Cobbler and added the "ring of red" over the More Mustard. Lastly, the center was done with Soft Suede. In the center is a fun new Soft Suede button from the Holiday Mini catalog. Can you say HUGE??  but fun!! I knotted a Very Very Vanilla grosgrain ribbon in the center and attached with Mini Glue dots. At the bottom is a Cherry Cobbler Scallop Dots ribbon upside down-the dots were too much. The saying is from Pursuit of Happiness and I just can't help using it with this stamp!! It's like they were made to go together!!

Thanks for stopping by today!! Continue on our the tour by clicking HERE To see what Kim has created this week!! Make sure to play along with us this week! Remember, the main Sketch Frenzy Friday blog and all member blogs are linked in my right sidebar if you happen to get derailed at any point. Hoping to get back into stamping mode this next week!!

Sketch Frenzy Friday 080511

Happy Friday all!! Long week here and lots to do on the weekend agenda!! I think I'm slowly getting caught up from a week away! Maybe...

Anyway, you know Friday means another Sketch Frenzy Friday challenge and tour!! Here is my card

based on this sketch, also by me!!

I've had this idea for quite awhile, and good thing. It was fairly late Thursday evening before I made it to the stamp room. After a struggle with colors, I finally settled on Real Red & Early Espresso. My brain just wasn't up to mixing too many colors in :) The card base is Early Espresso with a Real Red layer behind the Real Red Dotted DSP background. At the bottom center of the background, I stamped the saying from Pursuit of Happiness in Early Espresso. The snails were stamped in Early Espresso on the Whisper White strip across the center. That was layered on Early Espresso before attaching over the background. The Real Red Buttons have Early Espresso Baker's Twine knotted in the center and are attached with Mini Glue dots. 

Thanks for stopping by today! Continue on our Mini Tour by clicking HERE to see what Kim has created this week. Remember, the main Sketch Frenzy Friday blog and all Team Members blogs are linked in my right side bar if you get derailed at any point!!

Click HERE to Shop My Store NOW!!

SU! Catalog Items used: 122737 Button Buddies * 121970 Pursuit of Happiness * 119686 Early Espresso Card Stock * 100730 Whisper White Card Stock * 102482 Real Red Card Stock * 117155 Patterns Brights DSP Stack * 119670 Early Espresso Classic Ink * 123124 Early Espresso Baker's Twine * 119747 Brights Designer Buttons * 103683 Mini Glue Dots

Sketch Frenzy Friday 072911

Happy Friday all! You know that means another Sketch Frenzy Friday challenge and mini tour!! Here is my creation

based on this sketch by Tammy Fite.

I carried the scallop square a little further than the sketch! I love the variation of making these little square cards on occasion. I cut a Melon Mambo Scallop Square with the Big Shot for the base layer. The actual "card" part is behind that. The square is right around 4-1/4", so I cut a 4x8 and fold it for the card. On the Melon Mambo I stamped the new Distressed Dots background. Word of warning: either my pad was very inky, or it's very easy to get too much ink on this one! I had to do it a second time to not have marks where I didn't want marks!! The next scallop square is Daffodil Delight and is the larger of the two on the Scallop Squares Duo die. I layered a Tempting Turquoise square in the center of that and stamped "Live in the Sunshine" at the bottom in Tempting Turquoise. I wrapped around a Melon Mambo Scallop Dots Ribbon. Hmmm, a theme! Scallops and dots!! :) Above that I attached a flower made with the Raining Flowers set. Melon Mambo for the back layer, Daffodil Delight with Tempting Turquoise for the middle layer, and a Tempting Turquoise button with White Bakers Twine.

Thanks for stopping by!! Continue on our mini tour by clicking HERE to see what Kim has created this week! Remember that all the member blogs as well as the main SFF blog are linked in my right side bar.

Click HERE to Shop My Store NOW!!

SU! Catalog Items used: 122767 Raining Flowers * 121970 Pursuit of Happiness * 122815 Distressed Dots * 115320 Melon Mambo Card Stock * 119683 Daffodil Delight Card Stock * 102067 Tempting Turquoise Card Stock * 115656 Melon Mambo Classic Ink * 119667 Daffodil Delight Classic Ink * 100814 Tempting Turquoise Classic Ink * 122985 Melon Mambo Scallop Dots Ribbon * 119747 Brights Designer Buttons * 113439 Big Shot * 115950 Scallop Square Bigz Clear Die * 120903 Scallop Squares Duo Bigz Die

Open House Flower Fest

Card two from the weekend! One of the ones that involved cutting! and glue drying time! Hopefully I didn't stress anyone out too much! I think on this one, the cutting and glue are very worth the end result!!

Love this new color-Wisteria Wonder!! The card base is Elegant Eggplant with a background layer of Wisteria Wonder behind the striped (or dotted-both look great!) Wisteria Wonder DSP. We layered together the DSP & Wisteria card stock and attached the fun new In Color ribbon at each side. I generally take my ribbon all the way around and knot it, but that doesn't work well with this ruffled ribbon. It makes the layer on top bumpy! So we did the "cheater" bow instead. Attached a strip to the back, and knot a smaller piece around it. On the DSP we stamped one of the sayings from Pursuit of Happiness. Love that new word set!! For the flower, we stamped four of the scallop flowers in Elegant Eggplant on Whisper White. We punched the first one with the 2-3/8" Scallop Circle punch. The other 3, we cut out a different "layer" of the flower. On each layer, we traced inside the Eggplant with the Wisteria Wonder marker. Then we applied Mono Multipurpose Liquid Glue and sprinkled over Dazzling Diamonds glitter. Actually, we did the flower first so the glue could dry somewhat while we did the rest of the card. The layers of the flower are attached together with dimensionals, and the flower attached to the DSP with dimensionals at the top and bottom over the ruffled ribbon.

Click HERE to Shop My Store NOW!!

SU! Catalog Items used: 122280 Flower Fest Clear * 121970 Pursuit of Happiness Clear * 105126 Elegant Eggplant Card Stock * 122922 Wisteria Wonder Card Stock * 105210 Elegant Eggplant Classic Ink * 123022 In Color 2011-2013 Markers * 122384 Patterns DSP Stack 2011-2013 In Color * 122973 Wisteria Wonder 3/8” Ruffled Ribbon * 119246 Basic Rhinestones * 102023 Dazzling Diamonds Glitter * 110755 Multipurpose Liquid Glue * 104430 Stampin’ Dimensionals * 118874 2-3/8” Scallop Circle Punch

Open House Sunflower

Most of you who follow me won't be surprised to know the first stamp I KNEW I was getting from this new catalog was the Sunflower. LOVE IT!! I hope to play more with it soon, but the first thing I thought of to do with it was Poppin' Pastels. Love the result!!

Card base is Chocolate Chip. Background accent layer is Daffodil Delight. We stamped the Sunflower in versamark on the First Edition DSP. Love that paper-so glad it made the new book! On the Sunflower, we applied Pastels. Chocolate Chip for the entire "center" of the flower. We added some Early Espresso to the very center for accent. The petals are Daffodil Delight with More Mustard around the very edge for accent. I find what works best with this technique is to twist a sponge dauber lightly on the pastels to pick up the color. Then dab it over the image and then twist to set the color on the Versamark. We attached the DSP to the Daffodil Delight and then knotted a Chocolate Chip 1/2" Scallop Dots Ribbon around before attaching to the Chocolate Chip card base. The saying is from a new set, Pursuit of Happiness. Love that saying with the Sunflower!! We stamped it in Chocolate Chip on Very Vanilla, punched with the Large Oval, layered on the Scallop Oval and attached with dimensional over the ribbon.

The other 3 cards to follow this week! Thanks for stopping by today!!

Click HERE to Shop My Store NOW!!

SU! Catalog Items used: 123066 Sunflower * 121970 Pursuit of Happiness Clear * 102128 Chocolate Chip Card Stock * 101650 Very Vanilla Card Stock * 119683 Daffodil Delight Card Stock * 121878 First Edition Specialty DSP * 124142 Chocolate Chip ½” Scallop Dots Ribbon * 120962 Stampin’ Pastels * 102283 Versamark Pad * 102892 Sponge Daubers * 104430 Stampin’ Dimensionals * 119856 Scallop Oval Punch * 119855 Large Oval Punch