Last Hope

Another huge round of cards for Hope You Can Cling To!  This will be my last post about them as I finally FINISHED!  Yay. I love being able to do all 35 cards, but it seemed extra challenging to finish them all this year.  I am happy that my mom and Jason both encouraged and supported me to make it happen.  Now on to the cards (and then on to cleaning the house! Yikes):

This one using the MFT Bokeh Builder set for Kelli's bokeh challenge.  Pretty easy choice of stamps for this one.  lol     I used one Tim Holtz Distress Ink pad for all the pink and just stamped off to get the different shades.  

Kathy's challenge was all about the book The Fault in Our Stars and asked for a romantic card to give to a significant other.   I think this image is so sweet and it was sitting on my shelf brand new and needing love.   Jason is sweet and cuts up apples for me all the time, so I thought it was pretty fitting for the love of my life.

Lydia's final challenge for this year was to make a card based on our favorite children's book.   I love books and always have, so it was hard to pick just one.  I do remember being super obsessed with a book called Spooky Tricks and decided to do a magic card.  I actually won a The Cat's Pajamas gift certificate one year from the HYCCT challenges and got this stamp with it.  :)   Perfect, right?!

This sweet little bunny from Mama Elephant just had to make another appearance on my cards.   Tabbatha's challenge was to use two different mediums on your creation.  I used distress inks, craft ink, and alcohol markers for mine.    The clouds are another HYCCT prize that I picked with a gift certificate from Your Next Stamp!   I love being able to use previous prizes on these cards.  

Here's an almost all Stampin' Up! card for you purists.  :)  Teresa's challenge was about cheering and we spelled out BOOBS. ha!   Blue, circle element, round embellishment, and black.    

Angie's card was about tilted layers.   I was almost asleep the other night and the idea for this one popped in my head.  I started telling Jason all about it and I think he was confused as to why I was thinking about stamping when I was supposed to be going to sleep.   Men are just so different from women!  I do my best thinking right before I fall asleep.  He got me this fun Texas stamp last year for a stocking stuffer and I thought it was time I inked it up.   I kept the card clean like the Texas flag.  

This is the last one.  I actually plan to go back and add some Crumb Cake seam binding to it because I'm not happy with the end result.  The challenge was Susie's to make our own background, no designer paper.   I love my background, but not the rest of the card.  Hopefully I can get it apart and fix it before I mail it off.   The SU World Map stamp is so fun with watercolor paper and distress inks! 

My little picture helper this morning.  She's telling me all about the Texas she found on this card.  lol 

Another Trio of Sketches

Last night I hosted a card class to say goodbye to a few retiring sets and designer paper.   I enjoyed my last set of cards that were all from the same sketch, so I went with that theme again.   :)   Here's the sketch we used from Pals Paper Arts:

I thought this was a fun one, but it sure did take a lot of punching!  I hope the ladies didn't end up with carpal tunnel after making 9 cards.  Here's our first card, the masculine version using Grunge Rock:

I'm really going to miss this set.  I bought it to challenge myself and fell in love with the fun images.   I always enjoy using it and to me, that's a sign of a great stamp set.  :)   We used a strip of the retiring Flirtatious DSP in Daffodil Delight.   I think that pattern was non-girly enough to work.   Ha!    Our next card was the feminine version of the card and my favorite of the three.   It was inspired by Deb's beautiful card that you can see here.  

This one uses more retiring designer paper, Paisley Petals.   It also uses a sentiment from Trendy Trees which is a new stamp set for me.  One of my demo BFFs was kind enough to gift it to me.  (Thanks, Mindy!).   I love the colors of this one!   I struggle to use River Rock sometimes, but it works great with Baja Breeze and Not Quite Navy.   Finally, here's our kids version of the card with a flipped version of the sketch:

Fox & Friends is the set that I'm most sad about losing.   Well, not losing because I will be keeping it, but not using it for classes I guess I should say.   It's my favorite set for kids and it has definitely earned it's keep over the past few years.   If I had to recommend one set that you should get before it's gone, it's this one!   I also used a small strip of another retiring dsp, Cheerful Treat.  It was a hostess choice this year and I got so much use out of it.  I just love the fun bright colors!   I hope you enjoyed the projects!   I want to do more of these, so you'll probably see quite a few sketch trios in the future.   

Just to update, my labs came back okay and I am NOT on bed rest nor do I have pre-eclampsia!   My blood pressure is still a little high and I have awful congestion/headache, aching ears, and a cough.  I'm hoping that will clear up soon as it's tiring to feel so yucky all day.   It's only 44 more days until our little girl is scheduled to be here!

Keep On Rockin'

Look familiar?  :)   I loved our sketch at Freshly Made Sketches so much this week that I made 2 cards!  This one isn't clean like the other one though.   As I was making the first one I knew I wanted to do another one in some boyish colors but add in a bit of distressing.   I hope it doesn't look too Halloweenish.   I did use the retired DSP from the last Holiday Mini, so it probably does.  :)   Hopefully there is a Halloween fan out there who will appreciate a birthday card in black and orange.   Gotta use up all that paper somehow!

FMS21: Rock On!

It's time for another fun sketch challenge from Freshly Made Sketches!  We had an amazing 75 entries last week!   I can't to see how many beautiful creations we get to see this week.  I am happy to say that I had a fun time creating my card for this challenge.   Yay!   It's the first time in a while that I've enjoyed stamping.    I think that was due in part to Lesley's great sketch, so thanks my friend.  

Isn't this a fun card?  I sell my cards locally in a children's consignment shop, so I try to keep some child and teen birthday cards in stock.    I think Grunge Rock is a perfect teen stamp set and one that I also LOVE using.   It is strange because it isn't my style at all, but I just adore it!   I am thankful that Stampin' Up! put it on sale and tempted me to buy it.  :)   I've definitely gotten some use out of it.  I also used some of the hostess designer paper that I've had for a while.  It is gorgeous paper and perfect for girly cards.  

Stamps:  Grunge Rock, July the Fourth

Ink:  Melon Mambo, Concord Crush

Paper:  Melon Mambo, Concord Crush, Whisper White, Cheerful Treat Hostess DSP

Tools/Accessories:  Big Shot, Scallop Circles #2 die, 3 inch circle die, Basic Rhinestones

Before I sign off, I thought I'd share these adorable Valentine's towels that my club hostess brought me last month.  I love my ladies, so it made me tear up a bit when she gave them to me and thanked me for being a wonderful demonstrator.   I waited a long time to get enough customers to get a club together but they made it well worth the wait.   They get along so well and our meetings are always full of fun...and eating.  :)  

Splitcoast Challenges!

Before you ask, yes, I made this.  It is not my normal style, but isn't that the point of challenges?   We won't talk about how distressing I find distressing or how I cringe when I put things on crooked...let's just focus on the card.    What do you think?   I had to channel my friend Ann a bit on this one.   She is amazing at the distressed look and is the reigning queen of the color spritzer.   I need to ask her  for some vacuuming tips now that my floor is covered with little balls of paper from all the distressing.  :)

So what possessed me to make this and do all the tearing and distressing?    Nope.  It's not the lack of carbs for a week.   It was for this week's color challenge over on Splitcoast!   They asked us to use gray, turquoise, and white.   I love turquoise with red, but I wasn't sure about this gray thing.   I do like how it turned out though.   Now it was also for a secret challenge on Splitcoast as well.   This week they are having the Dare to Get Dirty challenges for fan club members.   So...if you aren't a member of the website. go sign up!   If you are but aren't a fan club member, do that!   It's fun.   Who doesn't like fun?  

Stamps:  Grunge Rock
Ink:  Tempting Turquoise, Basic Gray
Paper:  Naturals White, Tempting Turquoise, Basic Gray, Brights DSP stack, Neutrals DSP stack
Accessories:  Basic Rhinestones
Tools: Big Shot, Stars #2 die, cutter kit, sponges

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