Anything Goes!

This is my final week as guest designer at The Paper Players.   I am very sad to see my time with them end because it has been such a blast!   They are a great group of ladies and I encourage all of you to join their weekly challenge.   This week's challenge is a tough one, ANYTHING GOES!    That leaves a lot of room for you to be creative, so pull out your favorite set or maybe a set that has yet to see ink and create!

I could not get a good picture of this one.  I don't know if it is the colors or if my lighting was just THAT bad, but this is the best I could do.   It is much prettier in person, but hopefully you can get an idea of how lovely it is from this bad photo.   :)     I was surfing around looking for some simple but lovely cards and found this one by Deena.   I knew I wanted to recreate it with a few changes and here's what I came up with.    It is a perfect card to showcase Fabulous Florets AND embossing!    Sometimes the best cards are the simplest ones.   :)

Stamps:   Fabulous Florets
Ink:  Versamark, Stazon
Paper:  Daffodil Delight, Basic Black, Greenhouse Gala designer paper
Accessories:  Basic Black satin ribbon, black embossing powder
Tools:  heat tool, embossing buddy, stamp-a-ma-jig

Saying Goodbye...

This coming Friday will be my last day as an employee at Hobby Lobby.    It has been 10 months since I finally felt ready to face employment after the loss of my Eli.    I knew I wasn't ready to go back full-time, so I started off small with a part-time retail job to get back in the swing of things.   I had no idea I'd soon have a small family that loved me and that I would enjoy spending time with.   They totally spoiled me yesterday and it was a happy, but sad day for me.   Deanna, my department manager and wonderful friend, made me this beautiful bracelet.   I love it because of all the meaning she captured; we are always taking dragonfly things out to Eli's grave and green is the birthstone color for August, his birthday month.   My mascara was a goner as soon as I got a peek inside the box; it is something I will treasure always.

All of my co-workers pitched in and we had a bit of a feast for lunch.   Sandwiches, chips, soda, cookies, fruit....I was stuffed afterwards!   It was so sweet of them to do all that for me.    It feels amazing to have people care so much about you, especially in a high turnover retail job like this.   I have made some friends that I will keep in touch with for a lifetime and I'm so thankful to have had to opportunity to work alongside them.  

I know this isn't stamping related, but I treasure creativity and thought Deanna's beautiful bracelet was worth sharing.  

PP48: Sketch Challenge

Nance has a super fun sketch for The Paper Players challenge this week.   I took advantage of the 30% off May scrapbooking promotion to get this fun set called Grunge Rock and thought it would be perfect for the sketch. It is totally outside of my comfort zone, but it is a young, fresh set that is great for teens and young adults!   What do you think?   I used my best friend the Color Coach to get the color combination; I love how they look together!

Stamps:   Grunge Rock, July Fourth (retired)
Ink:  So Saffron, Baja Breeze, Riding Hood Red
Paper:  Baja Breeze, So Saffron, Riding Hood Red, So Saffron dsp (retired)
Accessories:  Basic Rhinestones
Tools:  Cutter Kit, Big Shot, Stars #2 die, sponges

Paper Players Sneak Peek

How about a sneak peek of my card for the upcoming Paper Players challenge? :) It is going to be a fun challenge, so be sure to check back Sunday to see the challenge and my card!   


I do apologize for the lack of posts lately.   My creativity seems to have ran off somewhere and it has been a struggle to make cards.   


Have a wonderful weekend!

One Layer? Impossible!

This card was meant to be my design team card for this week's Paper Players challenge, but Blogger has had so many issues that they have decided to extend the current challenge to make sure everyone is able to play along. 

The challenge for the card was to make a one layer card. Can we discuss how difficult it is to make a card with no layers? I finally came up with this one and while I like it, I LOVE LAYERS.

Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, En Francais, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink: Old Olive, Early Espresso
Paper: Confetti White
Accessories: Vintage Trinkets, Early Espresso ribbon
Tools: Sponges

Have you seen my mojo?

Sorry for the lack of posts this week.   I won't even go into how many pieces of card stock I've mangled in the past few days, but I keep hoping to see my stampin' mojo come back soon.    In the meantime, I'm enjoying the sunshine with my fur babies.  :)    I hope everyone is having a good week.  

In Color Owl

Today is a lazy Sunday so I decided to keep my card simple. Mr. Owl is so adorable that he doesn't need much to make a card super cute. 

This card is for two challenges, the sketch challenge at Just Add Ink and the color challenge at Pals Paper Arts.

Stamps: Tiny Tags
Ink: Poppy Parade
Paper: Pear Pizzazz, Poppy Parade, Whisper White, In Color Hostess paper
Tools: Big Shot, Little Leaves die, Lots of Tags die, Owl punch

PP46: Color Challenge

Ann has a great color challenge for us this week at the Paper Players.    It is perfect for a masculine card and coordinates with the new nautical suite in the Summer Mini.    I've used The Open Sea for several masculine cards lately and wanted to use it again, but without the ship stamp.    Thankfully, I just got my new order in this week and had the awesome Word Play set to use.   It is a really fun set and I loved that I was able to get it for 30% off thanks to Stampin' Up!'s May scrapbooking promotion.   What do you think?   I think it is perfect for a graduation card!

Stamps:  The Open Sea, Word Play
Ink:  Early Espresso, Cherry Cobbler, Not Quite Navy
Paper:  Not Quite Navy, Cherry Cobbler, Naturals White, Early Espresso, Nautical Expedition designer paper
Tools:  circle punches, sponges, cutter kit

Double Challenge!

It has been a few days since I've made a card and boy did I miss stamping! Today I combined a couple of challenges: the first was the SCS clean-and-simple challenge to use chocolate, sand, and baby blue, while the second was the Friday Mashup challenge to make something baby-themed. 

You can find the challenges here and here.  

Stamps: A Slice of Life (retired), Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Bashful Blue, Crumb Cake
Paper: Neutrals designer paper stack, Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake, Bashful Blue, retired Bashful Blue designer paper

PP45: Birds, Bees, Flowers, and Trees

The Paper Players are starting the month off with a fun theme challenge that's perfect for spring!    I'd love for you to come play along this week!   There are so many things you could do with this challenge, so get creative, have fun, and come post your creation!

Here is my card for the challenge:

I decided to focus on the flowers because I really wanted to make one of the fun ribbon flowers that I found on my friend Kathy's blog.   I don't own a lot of the satin ribbon, so I focused my color choices on red and then neutrals.   I love the classic combination of red, black, and vanilla.   Cutting out stamped images is not very high on my list of fun things to do, but I thought I'd make the effort to give some dimension to my card.   What do you think?    I think it would make a pretty wedding card for a happy couple this summer.  :)

Stamps:  Fabulous Florets

Ink:  Staz-on, Versamark, Real Red marker

Paper:  First Edition designer paper, Real Red, Basic Black, Very Vanilla, Neutrals Patterns designer series stack

Tools:  Heat Tool, Paper Snips, Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border punch

Accessories: Real Red satin ribbon, Basic Pearls, Black Embossing Powder

May Creative Crew Challenges

These two cards were designed for the May Holiday/Seasonal Focus.  I used the same rough layout, just flipped it for the second card.      CCREW0511HF, CreativeCrew, SUO or SUM - Holiday/Seasonal Focus -- Family Time!  This month we're doing a his & hers challenge. Choose one layout and make a masculine card and a feminine card!   

These two projects focus on the DSP/Color Focus challenge of using the Elegant Soiree DSP or all neutrals with a splash of Baja Breeze.   CCREW0511DF, CreativeCrew, SUO or SUM - DSP/Color Focus: 
-- Go neutral with a splash of color! Instead of whisper white or very vanilla, try naturals white or ivory, confetti white or cream. Large emphasis on neutrals. Look to the Elegant Soiree DSP this month for inspiration: All neutrals with that splash of baja breeze! You do not have to use the Elegant Soiree DSP but that is the look that we're after.

My final creation was a difficult one for me as I am not good at "vintage".   It ended up being a very soft, elegant card with just a hint of distressing.   I love the vintage trinkets and they are perfect for this look.  CCREW0511CF, CreativeCrew, SUO or SUM - Catalog Focus -- So Distressing. Use the Distressing Essentials kit, cutter kit, sponges, daubers. Make the new look old.


The last challenge is one that I didn't do, the scrapbooking focus.   CCREW0511SF, CreativeCrew, SUO or SUM - SB Inspiration Focus: -- Vintage Pages. We want to see black and white or Sepia photos! We want the page to look like it's from a by-gone era, think antiquing, distressing, lace, etc.


I encourage you to play along with us over on Splitcoast this month and upload your beautiful creations!   Be sure to use the challenge id and creativecrew in your keywords so that we can see you work.  :)