The Shabby Tea Room's One, Two Three Challenge: Week 20

My mojo left town about a week ago, without me -- I just hate it when that happens! So after struggling for many hours (you don't really want to know), this is my card for The Shabby Tea Room's One, Two, Three Challenge: 1 ribbon, 2 buttons, 3 die cuts/punches. Here I've combined the school girl image and my sentiment (die cut from Cosmo Cricket's Material Girl Mini Deck) with some Margo papers by K&Company for my BG and die-cut Fancy Tag behind my school girl. Two tiny baby buttons adorn the sentiment and the crinkled seam binding ribbon bow was "shabbied" with Copic markers YG06, YG95 and O Colorless Blender. I used Spellbinder's Fancy & Double Ended Tags, as well as the center only from the inside small Polka Dots frame die to cut out my girl. Thanks for your visit today!

Papertrey July Blog Hop Challenge: Office Supplies

Our challenge for Papertrey Ink's Blog Hop tonight is to incorporate those fun desk drawer fillers into your project. For my retirement card, I've included paper clips (embossed into the card base), a small binder clip, colored staples, an index card punched with a binding edge, a Rollabind disc and hanging file tab holder.
PTI products include: Vintage Cream CS; Raspberry Suite's 2010 Color Couture Downloads (file folder card template & Vol. 5 patterned paper), Mixed Messages (sentiments), Polka Dot Basics (circles) and Beautiful Bloom II (flower) stamps and Raspberry Fizz & Ripe Avocado inks.
I didn't have a "Things To Do" stamp, so I created that in Word and printed it on my index card strip and then stamped circles for the recipient to check off her accomplished retirement goals!
I'm so excited to see what everyone else created tonight!

Jill's First Annual Christmas in July Challenge

Found a great new challenge at Anjillic Creations, with a fabulous prize! Her challenge is simply to create a Christmas card -- the perfect excuse for me to use my new PTI Vintage Ornaments and Additions stamp sets. I chose to do a classy/elegant card on cream CS entirely in gold -- gold-embossed ornaments stamped on gold paper, accented with gold Stickles, gold leaf on the feather-edged opening, and my sentiment embossed in gold as well. Really love how this turned out and really LOVE the versatility these ornament sets provide! Jill's challenge ends on 7-31!!!
Paper: Avery CS; DeNami Design Gold CS
Stamps: PTI's Vintage Ornaments, Vintage Ornaments Additions
Ink: VersaMark
Embellishments: Golden Rod Stickles; DeNami Design Gold EP; Krylon 18 kt. Gold Leafing Pen; Stampendous Class A'Peel Stickers

Aspiring to Creativity Challenge 1

This new Aspiring to Creativity challenge, which includes a sketch as well as six colors (mid brown, mid blue, yellow green, mid pink, light pink, pale yellow), proved to be challenging for me. I do like my resulting card though. For my centerpiece I used another Martha Stewart Die-Cut Lace Tag, colored yellow with a Copic Marker before stamping the tree limb and bird. The challenge ends in three days, so you still have time to enter!

I'm also adding this card to My Sheri Crafts "Critters" challenge.

Paper: PTI's Sweet Blush & Sping Moss CS & Pink Patterns DP

Stamp: PTI's Round & Round (2009 Limited Ed. Anniversary set)

Ink: PTI's Spring Moss & Berry Sorbet

Embellishments: Martha Stewart Die-Cut Tag, Hero Arts Gem, Making Memories "Kate" Ribbon, Copic Markers: Y11, E57

Tools: Spellbinders' Inverted Scalloped Square die

JustRite Friday Challenge 027: Christmas in July

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here, even though we could fry an egg on our sidewalk! Whew, think my next project should involve some real snow! ;~) For my JRS project today I decorated a plain woven bag, which I found for 29 cents after Christmas at World Market. I first cut/embossed the Spellbinders' Christmas Tree & trunk in green/tan suede paper and decorated it with a garland of clear gems I colored with Copics. Next I stamped/embossed the "Celebrate" stamp from Just a Note Borders & Centers in VersaMark Ink on gold paper for my tree topper. I then gold embossed and added tiny Copic-colored stars over the 3 stamped stars! The raffia handles were replaced with some red ribbon from my stash to complete my gift bag. Below is a "before" photo of the bag; it's definitely more gift-worthy now!

EDITED TO ADD: My sweet friend just reminded me I could add this @ The Shabby Tea Room challenge, so I'm going to do that! Thanks, BBGF!!!

Paper: DeNami's Gold CS; Hot Off the Press Green & Tan Suede
Stamps: JRS Just a Note Borders & Centers
Ink: VersaMark
Embellishments: Hero Arts Gems; Amuse Star gems; ribbon from stash; DeNami Gold EP
Tools: Spellbinders Wizard & Nested Pine Trees die

Vintage Thank You Card

Our craft group took a class with Terre (Terre's Scrap Therapy) recently and we made these fabulous vintage cards. Our focus was the great grunge flower made with Spellbinders' peony die, scrunched & crunched up and misted with 2-3 shades of Glimmer Mist! I just LOVE how easy/fun these are to make and wanted to share this today while I work on a couple other projects.

Paper: Core'dinations CS; Vintage paper (Terre's stash)

Embellishments: Ribbon & Various Glimmer Mists (all Terre's)

Tools: Spellbinders' Wizard & Dies: Peony, Fancy TagsLabels 8, & leaf (unknown name/all Terre's)

Unscripted Sketches #63

I was first introduced to the Unscripted Sketches #63 challenge through Ted's blog recently and then almost missed the deadline! Yikes! My photo is not good, due to the late hour & impending storm here, so I'll try to upload a better one tomorrow. Just thought it would be fun to try a Christmas card since it was 113 degrees here today -- anything to try to feel cool!!!

Paper: PTI's Kraft, Making Memories "Tinsel and DCWV solid red, blue, green CS

Embellishments: Recollections' Epoxy Stickers; Silver Stickles

Tools: Spellbinders' Wizard & S-3 138: Ribbon & Bells die

JustRite Friday Challenge 026: Nice Notes

My Nice Note is made using Spellbinders' Labels Twelve, Peony (flower) and Doodle Parts (swirl) dies and Core'dinations CS. After cutting/embossing my large & small frames, I sanded the Core'dinations' paper to reveal more of the gorgeous pale turquoise color and bring out the frames' embossing. I used Tsukineko's Sheer Shimmer Sparkle Spritz on the swirls before wrapping them around the large frames' sides (click on the photo to enlarge). My JustRite Just a Note sentiment is popped up on foam tape. I cut two peony flowers from an old book page, colored them with Twinkling H2O's and spritzed with Shimmer for the bottom corner embellishment. Think this little "Just a Note" tucked away would really brighten someone's day when discovered!
Paper: Core'dinations Whitewash Collection & PTI's Aqua Mist CS
Stamp: JustRite Just a Note Borders & Centers
Ink: Memento's Tuxedo Black
Embellishments: Doodlebug (brad); Tsukineko's Sheer Shimmer Sparkle Spritz
Tools: Spellbinders' Wizard, Labels Twelve, Peony & Doodle Parts' Dies

Thanks Just Doesn't Seem Like Enough

Has your mojo gone on hiatus? Mine has, as of a couple days ago. I know it's hard to believe, but I struggled all day to figure out how to incorporate the four colors into a card for the Color Throwdown #100 challenge. Now, mind you, there are 330 entries at this very moment, so it's not like it should be difficult to come up with one little card! Do ya think?!!! After many struggles and messing up repeatedly, it's come down to this very basic CAS card for my entry! Thanks for your visit today -- apparently I need all the support I can muster -- LOL!

Paper: PTI's White CS

Stamps: PTI's Turning a New Leaf & Autumn Abundance (sentiment)

Ink: PTI's Spring Moss

Embellishments: PTI's & Making Memories Buttons

Tools: Spellbinders' Double-Ended Tags

Marge's Memo 1

I've had a few questions regarding the "doily" I've been using on my cards recently. I discovered these on several others' blogs, so I take no credit for "finding" them in the first place, but I did want to post a quick photo to help those of you wishing to locate them. They are Martha Stewart tags available at Michaels' stores. Because I had a difficult time spotting them in the MS aisle (went to 3 stores before finding them) , I decided I'd do a Marge's Memo (a take-off on Becca Feeken's "Becca Bits", which is so clever!) to aid others finding them. I'm sure MS will thank me! There are 4 each of the 3 different tags in each pkg. for $3.99 and are called die-cut lace tags on the package back. Because they're hanging, they all fall together at the bottom of the cellophane wrap, making them more difficult to spot! Double click on the photo to see it better (sorry it's lousy, but we're in the midst of our first 2010 monsoon storm here)! These are very nice quality, I've Copic colored them & the one on the right in the photo fits perfectly with one of the Scalloped Circle Nestabilies' dies as shown in my 5/29 Memorial Day card! You can see them in 6/01, 6/14 and 7/07 posts also. Happy shopping, ladies -- hope this helps you spot these little gems!

Happy Birthday, John!

A dear friend, who worked with my husband at the time we met and was quite instrumental in helping me to see that he was a great guy, is having a big birthday! Rather than dwell on how old we're getting, I chose to highlight one of his many hobbies. ;~) The inside reads: "There are two kinds of people in the world, Harley riders, and everybody else." My hubby & I belong to the "everybody else" class, but I thought John would appreciate my handmade motorcycle card anyway!

Paper: PTI's Orange Zest; black & silver CS from stash

Stamps: SU's Born to Ride

Ink: Memento's Tuxedo Black

Embellishments: EK Success Stickers

Tools: Spellbinders' Labels 7 Dies; ProvoCraft DiamondPlate EF

Just Us Girls Week 40 Sketch & Happily Ever Crafter #8: Old Glory Challenges

JUGS weekly challenge is a sketch with a bonus drawing for using JustRite Stampers. Because I also wanted to do Ted's challenge, I chose to use red/white/blue and combine the two, besides I just love pleating this ribbon -- LOL!!! My sentiment is stamped using JustRite's 25-point font on a 2" Round Stamper onto a shimmery oval Nestie. JRS sets are so versatile -- you can just use your imagination for any wording you desire, just as I did on my personalized baby card in yesterday's post. I just love that!!! I used minimal layers due to the bold colors, large main embellishment and pleated ribbon.

Paper: PTI's Shimmer, Hot Off The Press Red Suede; Blue CS from stash

Stamps: JRS Times New Roman 25-pt. Font & 2" Round Stamper

Ink: VersaColor's Royal Blue

Embellishments: Stars & Ribbon from stash

Tools: Spellbinders's Dies: Big Scalloped Ovals Large, Stars & Classic Oval

JustRite Friday Challenge 025: Inside Out

This week's fun challenge at JustRite Stampers required us to use their sentiment stamps inside and out on our projects. Since I had a card in mind for a friend who's expecting a baby girl and whose favorite color just happens to be pink, I needed to create my own original sentiments, so this was a perfect challenge! I had sooo much fun pulling together lots of little pink details for this card, none the least of which is the library card download I used, which can be found here. Thanks so much to Heather Nichols for letting us have this little gem for free! For my Title, Author and Issued To sections I used my JRS 15-pt. Times New Roman alphabet to create them! LOVE that you can create any sentiment your heart desires -- especially when I did my inside verse (second photo). Since my friend "teaches teachers" in her job, I think she'll appreciate the library card & "as a new chapter begins" analogy I used, as well as the pink girliness! ;-)
I'm also linking this card to The Shabby Tea Room Challenge #17 for this week: to "make an impression" by using embossing, which I used inside and out also!

EDITED TO ADD: I'm a huge fan of Papertrey Ink (whom Heather Nichols designs for) and discovered the very day after this post that PTI is releasing the library card as a stamp & an accompanying library pocket die also!!! The PTI reveals begin July 10th & release will be on July 15th, if you're interested!!! Thanks for stopping by!!!
Paper: DeNami Design's: Pink CS; DCWV patterned baby paper; white CS (stash)
Stamps: JRS Times New Roman 15-pt.; PTI (footprint)
Ink: Versacolor's Pink pigment ink
Embellishments: Martha Stewart tags; Heidi Grace Heart Accents; Heidi Swapp Ghost Alpha Letter; Provo Craft's Dotted Swiss EF; safety pin, pearls, tulle, ribbon, rick-rack from stash
Tools: Martha Stewart Doily Hearts punch