December Challenge Cards

Hi - a quick post before I head out the door on Michelle's and my challenge cards!  Here was the challenge:

 Michelle made two cards for this challenge.  I did too, but gave the one card away and forgot to take a picture first (DOH!)  Michelle used a lot of things for this card.  She used a couple dies and the matching piercing tools!  I love the way the piercing really makes the image pop, don't you?  What a lovely card!

 Next is her second card.  I would never have thought to do this, but I love that she pierced the upper half section of this card.  And, she double pierced it - it's really subtle and beautiful!  I'm going to have to CASE this!

 Finally, here is my card.  I decided to really frame the snowman image by first die cutting and then piercing around the cut.  I don't think you can see it well, but I also pierced around the oval sentiment "Merry Christmas".  I love the way the paper piercing looks and this was a great challenge to get our feet wet using our new products!

From Michelle and me, we wish you a very happy holiday season.  Thanks so much for looking and we'll be back next month with the next challenge!

 

Happy New Year to all!!!!

December Simply Paper Design Challenge

We are closing out the year with a different kind of challenge.  Stampin' Up! came out with a wonderful new paper piercing pack and they also have some wonderful new paper piercing templates.  So, we felt the need to justify having bought them and decided to challenge ourselves with paper piercing!  We hope you'll join us in the fun!

Another Challenge Card

Debbie created another card for the challenge and used the DSP!  Look how awesome this card is!  I love it!  I really appreciate that she made the main focal point the flower made out of the DSP - very cute.  I would never have thought to do that!   :)  To read more about this card, head on over to her blog and show her some love :)

Thanks for looking and feel free to join in on the challenges with us!

November Challenge - Check!

I hope everyone had a very Happy Thanksgiving last week.  It sure was nice to be with family and friends and have some time to relax and craft!  I really enjoyed sitting down and taking a couple days to create again!

Let's get to the challenge - here it is again:

 

First up is Michelle's awesome card.  Isn't it cute?  I love that she used so many of the different pages of the designer paper.  We both love this paper - it is so great!  Nice job on the framing too, Michelle!  The colored in stamped image is a great one for this challenge.  I like that it is simple, yet makes a bold statement against the papers in the back.  It's just lovely!  To see more of Michelle's creations, please visit her blog here.

 

Next is my card.  I have been wanting to use this stamp since I bought it last year!  I didn't get a chance to make tags with it, but thought it was perfect for this challenge.  The designer sheet I chose from the pack looks like little Christmas trees to me, so thought it would make a great background for things that would go under the tree!  I colored in the images with my markers to match the colors in the paper.  I also have been wanting to use that luxurious velvet ribbon from last year and finally had a chance - LOL!  It's beautiful and I thought perfect for that open white space that I couldn't leave on the card!

 

Finally, we have my sister's card.  She made this for me for my recent birthday and I love it!  Isn't that designer paper gorgeous?  It's full of color and beauty and the butterfly she cut out and popped up is such an elegant touch.  I love this card - what a great surprise!  She didn't use the DSP as I don't have a Christmas birthday, but she used the sketch and I just love it!  To see more of Debbie's fantastic cards and projects (she has the best tutorials going right now!), head on over to her blog here.

 

Well, that's it for another month.  I can't believe we are almost in December!!!!  Have a wonderful week and thanks so much for looking!

 

 

November Simply Paper Design Challenge

By this time of year, we are thinking of Christmas cards.  Michelle and I both love the Stampin' Up! designer series paper called "Be of Good Cheer".  So, we decided to incorporate it into our challenge.  Using this sketch and the DSP, design with us!

Two More Amazing Challenge Cards!

I have two more October challenge cards to share with you.  The first one is another one done by Debbie Naylor.  I love this card!  That crumb cake sure can be versatile, right?  It looks so elegant here with the delicate ribbon tying it all together (pun intended)!  Check out her details here.

 

The second card is by my friend Regina.  Wowza!  Looks like she ran one layer through an embossing place and then used some Crystal Effects in parts of the embossed areas.  She also must have embossed the sentiments.  That looks like ribbon in the middle, but I think it is paper!  For more information on this card and to see more wonderful works by Regina, check out her site here.

 

Thank you Debbie and Regina for joining Michelle and me in another challenge.  We are really enjoying your lovely creations and hope you'll join us again next month!

 

Everyone, have a wonderful day and thanks so much for looking!

October Challenge Cards

Hi - hope everyone is okay after that horrible storm.

Here are the cards for October's monochromatic challenge.  This was was a lot harder than I anticipated!  I think the sketch didn't lend itself well to doing a monochromatic card.  I think lots of layers is definitely a must for these kinds of cards.

Here's the sketch challenge:

First up is Debbie Naylor's card.  She was really thinking color!  I love this card - that stamped flower image is so amazingly beautiful and really pops!  This is really a great way to use this sketch and I love that she thought in color.  Great job, Sis!  Thanks for joining us again this month! 

 

For more of Debbie's unfrogettable creations and to read more about this card, please visit her blog here!

 

Next up is Michelle's card.  Wow, this is such an elegant card and what a perfect wedding, shower, or anniversary card this would make!  The textured background goes perfectly with the feel of this card.  I love the embossed butterfly with the pearls too.  Great card, Michelle!  To see more of Michelle's awesome creations, please visit her blog here.

 

And last up is my card.  I really struggled with this challenge.  I thought it would be a lot easier.  I knew I wanted to do a wintry card and I could only think in all white.  So, snow it was!  I used different snowflake embossing folders and another embossing folder for the middle piece.  It didn't look quite right, so I added some ribbon.  I cut die cut some snowflakes and added a pearl to the middle and popped it up on a dimensional so it stands out from the embossed snowflakes.  It still needed something, so I found a white snowflake brad and punched out some tags after stamping "merry" on them.  I attached to the brad with some DMC floss and finally felt like it was done.  Whew!  It really was a challenging month!

 

Thanks for looking and have a wonderful day.  Please join us in November for a new challenge that will be posted on Saturday.

Happy Name Day Dimitrios!

To my husband and all of the Dimitrioses out there, I wish you a very Happy Name Day! 

I saw this card created by Sharlene Meyer and had to CASE it.  My husband loves LEGOs (who doesn't??) and knew this was the card to make. 

To everyone else, I also hope you have a wonderful day and weekend!  Thanks for looking.

October Simply Paper Design Challenge

Hi there!  This month, Michelle and I decided we'd do something different.  We've both wanted to challenge ourselves to do a monochromatic card.  Well, this month, that's our challenge!  Using the skefch above, join us and make a monochromatic card using any one color of your choosing.  Hope you'll join us!

September Challenge Cards

I have a very busy schedule coming up this weekend, so I'm posting the challenge cards a little early. A huge thank you to Debbie and Regina for joining Michelle and me in this month's challenge. Both Debbie and Michelle were ambitious and did two cards each for this challenge! Here's the challenge:

 

 

First up are Michelle's cards.  This first one is such a fun and happy card!  I love all of the different circles and layers Michelle used on her card.  It just reminds me of bubbles in a bathtub, an old cassette tape, or a robot's smile - all things that make me happy :)  I think the ribbon separating the turquoise and pumpkin is such a great touch!  Nice job Michelle...as always!

Next is Michelle's second card.  She created it using Stampin' Up!'s My Digital Studio.  Isn't this great?  I love how the doggie image looks like her fuzzy - it's perfect!  It's a great card that can be used as a card or a great start to a scrapbook page.  I love the texture you get from the designer paper and ribbon.  It's hard to believe it isn't the real thing!  Great use of MDS Michelle!  For more of Michelle's wonderful creations, please visit her blog here.

 

Next are Debbie Naylor's two great cards!  I think this is sooo cute.  Debbie is the queen of color usage.  I mean, I struggled with these colors, but look how simply Debbie put them together!  She does it so easily and it just plain works!  I think this owl card is adorable - I mean, who wouldn't want to receive this on their birthday?  I love the googlie eyes and bling on the hearts.  It is just the perfect touch for this adorable card.

This next card is near and dear to my heart.  Debbie sent this for my recent Anniversary.  I just love it!  I think the two owls are super cute on that branch and the placement of the sentiment is great.  I wouldn't have thought to put the sentiment under the image!  Thanks, Debbie - we loved the card!

 

For more of Debbie's fantastic creations (cards, scrapbook pages, and so much more!), please check out her amazing blog here (this link takes you to the post about this card).

 

Next up is Regina's card.  I absolutely love this card!  It's simple, uses all of the colors and design, but is so happy and elegant all at the same time!  Regina, how do you do it?  I love the popped up flower and the pearl on the end of the sentiment.  I also like that you used the sentiment as the main focus of this card.  The prop of the plant is brilliant!  The card looks like it belongs with the plant :)  To see more of Regina's wonderful creations and to read more about this card, hop on over to her blog here.

 

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Weiter oben ist Regina's Karte. Ich liebe diese Karte! Das ist einfach, das alle Farben und Design, ist aber so glücklich und gleichzeitig elegant! Regina, wie machen Sie das? Ich liebe die erschien, das Blume und die Pearl auf das Ende der Stimmung. Ich möchte auch, dass sie das Gefühl als der Schwerpunkt der dieser Karte.  Der prop der Anlage ist genial! Die Karte gehört mit der Anlage :) Wenn Sie mehr über Regina wunderbares Werk zu lesen und mehr über diese Karte, zu Ihrem Blog hier.

Finally, we have my card.  I had to really think on this one because the combination of colors threw me!  But, I decided I wanted to use DSP in each of the colors and go from there.  So, that's how I started.  I then started to pull out my matching buttons, but they didn't work for the two sides.  I found these metal embellishments and thought they looked good.  I then decided that I should use the Button Buddies stamp set that I haven't used yet ;)  So, I saw the flower vase stamp and knew I'd found my image!  I used marker to color in the image.  I didn't know if any of the flowers would show through after placing the flower buttons, so I colored them in their respective button colors.  You can't tell though :(  I think those flower buttons are the cutest!  I love them.  And, I didn't use ribbon for a change!  Overall, I like how this card turned out.  These colors turned out to be a great combination (thanks Lindsey!) and they are just happy together :)

 

I can't believe another month's done!  Please join us in the October challenge that will post on Saturday, October 6.  We'd love to see what you do!  Thanks for looking and have a great day!

3 More August Challenge Cards!

Kathy and Michelle did send these before the end of the month, but I'm so busy, I'm just now able to post them.    Here's the challenge again:

 

First up is Michelle's card - WOW!  Isn't this beautiful?  I wouldn't have thought to use the ribbon diagonally on the card.  I love that die cut too - so flowery and nice.  Michelle did such a nice job coloring in the cute image using her ink pads and blending pens.  The little pearls add such a sweet touch.  The sentiments are perfect too!  Love it, Michelle.  To read more about Michelle's card and to see her other awesome creations, please check out her blog here.

 

Next up are two cards from Kathy Kennedy.  The first card Kathy created uses the sketch and colors exactly.  I love that die cut set she used and I keep looking at that one stamp set with this awesome image.  Isn't it beautiful?  I like how Kathy cut up the Happy Birthday sentiment to use on the corners - very clever! 

 

Kathy's seond card is actually a gift card holder she made for a swap she participated in.  Isn't this a cute gift card holder?  I love that she used the leaves in place of the sentiment and the sentiment in place of the main image!  Fall is such a great time of year and the colors are just awesome.  I love how this turned out Kathy.  To see more of Kathy's creations, head on over to her blog here.

 

Thanks to everyone that participated in the challenge and hope you'll play along in September, posted today!  Have a great day everyone and thanks for looking!

September Simply Paper Design Challenge

Here we go again - here's September's challenge.  I see lots of potential for this one.  Please join us!

August Simply Paper Design Challenge Cards

Hello!  Here are the cards made for August's challenge.  Here is the sketch and colors:

First to finish was Debbie Naylor.  She made this card for our very own design member Michelle.  Michelle has an August birthday and this card was perfect!  I believe Michelle's son picked these colors.  Debbie used this year's Ronald McDonald House Charities stamp set.  It's so cute and darn, I am gonna have to order it!  I love that Debbie used some designer paper - love it!  She also used some pearls in the middle of her flowers.  What a great, great card!!!!  I'm not sure why the image is so small, so please  drop by her blog to read more about this card.   Please visit Debbie's awesome blog here.

 

Next up, is Regina's card.  Regina recently became a SU! demonstrator in Germany - how cool is that?  I love it!   I know she has been super busy with work and family, so I really appreciate her taking the time to join us in this challenge!   Regina used some beautiful designer paper, framed it out in that beautiful Early Espresso.  What a cute idea she had to use the twine on the jar's lid - clever!!!!  I love that she filled the jar with hearts.  I'm sure this is going to be given to a special person and they will be lucky to receive this adorable card.  To read more about Regina's card, please visit her totally creative blog here.

 

Next up is my card.  At first, I thought this card would be a masculine card because of the colors.  Then, I started looking at stamp sets and had to use my new Four Seasons set.  I've been trying to use this set for a while and nothing has worked out for me.  But, these colors screamed Fall and I just love the birds.  I know exactly who is going to get this card - my mother-in-law!  She loves birds, has an October birthday, and I think she'll really like this one.  I started with the middle bird image.  I colored in the image with my markers.  I then stamped it and cut it out.  I used a 1" circle punch on Early Espresso and mounted the image.  Next, I wasn't quite sure what to do about all of the leaves on the rest of the stamp.  I colored all of it with my Daffodil Delight marker, then went back with my Cherry Cobbler and Early Espresso markers and thumped them all over the image.  I stamped the image and used the punch to cut it out.  I was looking for sentiments to use and came across a set that works perfectly - I can't remember the set's name, but love that it uses the little birds.   I punched out the words, framed them out and attached matching brads.  The sentiments and middle bird image are popped up with dimensionals.  I can't believe I didn't use any ribbon or DSP on this card.  But, I love it!  Great colors, Logan :)

I know Michelle has a lot on her plate at the moment, but I'm sure she'll be submitting her card soon.  I'll post as soon as she's done.

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend!

Happy Birthday Ellen!

Happy Birthday, Ellen!!!!  I hope you have a fun-filled and wonderful birthday. 

Ellen has been talking about getting a dog and she loves to garden.  So, this stamp was the perfect one for her!  I wanted to use the new In Colors and this Midnight Muse and Raspberry Ripple are my favorites.  I stamped the image on the Naturals White (love this paper!) and then used my markers to color in the image.  I used this Bellariffic sketch and substituted buttons for a bow (shocking, I know!  I rarely go without ribbon or bows on my cards!)  But, I just think this is a sweet card and it is going to a sweet friend.  I hope she likes it :)

Have a wonderful day and thanks for looking!

Happy Birthday Shelley!

Happy Birthday Shelley!  Hope you have a wonderful day filled with all of your favorite things :)

I love this Wisteria Wonder color and the DSP is just so pretty.  I decided to use Clean and Simple sketch #166 for this card.

I think I should have made the tag a little bigger because with the ribbon bow, you can't tell it's a tag, but I still like the way this came out.  I love that Apothecary stamp set and the matching dies.  I finally opened them - yay!  I decided not to color in the flowers on the image because I think it would take away from the card.  I popped some pearls on the image and of course had to use a bow ;)  Done!

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Happy Birthday Michelle!

Happy Birthday, Michelle.  Hope you like the card and hope it has found its way to you by now :)  I wish you a wonderful birthday.  Hope you are treated like a queen and get extra special treats :)

I saw this card by Kati and loved it!  I had to CASE it.  I believe Rich Razzleberry is one of Michelle's favorite colors, so I had to use it.  I used the Naturals White (love this paper!) as the background because it has wonderful little specs of color and seems to go well with every color.  I used Chocolate Chip and Rich Razzleberry DSP for the balloons and owl's body.  My cousin sent me the self adhesive google eyes and they are much easier to use than assembling tiny little pieces for the eyes!  I used some cloud punches and the natural twine for the balloon string.  Fun!

Thanks for looking and I wish everyone a wonderful day!

Happy Birthday, Michael!

Happy Birthday, Michael!  I wish we were in Hawaii celebrating, but....this card will have to do!  LOL  I hope you have a wonderful, wonderful day - love and hugs to you!

My friend Michael shares my love of Hawaii. So, I broke out the stamps I bought in Maui a couple years ago and got to work. I was feeling the heat of the area and the palm trees just spoke to me ;) 

I used some Flower Soft for the sand on the main image and colored the image in with my Stampin' Up! markers. I love how this turned out - makes me want to hop a plane and go right now!

Mahalo for looking and have a great day!

August Simply Paper Design Challenge

Here is August's challenge.  Use the colors, use the sketch, or use both!  Just join us if you can!

Mojo Monday 214 Birthday Card

August is a busy birthday month for me.  So, I grabbed the calendar and some sketch challenges and got to work last weekend.  I'm not sure who is going to get this one, but I have had this SU! pack of flower dies with colored gems for a while and decided it was time to open and use it!  I love the Mojo Monday sketches and pulled #214 (older one - from November of 2011).  I then pulled card stock colors that matched the flower dies and this is what I came up with!

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

July Swap Card

Here is a picture of my swap card for our meeting.  I made packages with all of the pieces ready to go and you could decide between the penguin or the sentiment.  I CASEd Lee Ann Greff's card here.  I loved her design and wanted to recreate it making it into a Christmas card.  I used markers to color in the penguin image and markers to color the stamp directly for the sentiment.  I love this Be of Good Cheer DSP - one of my new favorites for sure!

Here's a picture of the group of women that were able to attend the July swap.   What a fun day!

Thanks for looking and have a wonderful day!

July Swap Meeting Upline Gifts

My sister (Debbie Naylor) is my SU! upline and she's the BEST!  She does so much for all of us under her and each year, she does two big swap meetings (one in July and one in December).  I love these and wish I lived closer so I could attend the ones in December, but I'm happy to be able to make the July ones.

I decided to show Debbie what a great upline she is by making her a coordinating In Color desk assortment of gifts.  I altered a magazine holder, tissue box, pencil cup, pens, glass jar, and acrylic frame.  I haven't bonded with these In Colors and really wanted to show them some love, so I systematically started using them on each gift.  The pens use both the Wisteria Wonder and Pool Party.  I'm not sure you can see it, but I punched out a butterfly with the new punch and jazzed it up with some pearls.  I filled it with Hershey Kisses :) Yum!

Debbie, if you are reading this - you are the best!  Thanks for all you do -  Love you!

July Challenge Cards

What a great time Michelle and I had with this month's challenge.  The colors and sketch were really good and easy to work with.  I made two cards and Michelle made three!  We both agreed that we'll definitely be using this sketch again for other cards.  Here is the challenge:

First are Michelle's cards.  For the first one, Michelle designed it exactly per sketch.  I love it!  This color combo and layout does seem to fit a masculine themed card.  I love this sporty car image she used.  Look at the awesome star embossing on the background piece!  I just love it!

Next is Michelle's second card.  Look how beautiful and feminine it is!  I ended up with two masculine cards and couldn't think feminine on this one, but love what she did here with the main flowers, the subtle background stamped with smaller flowers, and the gorgeous flowers she cut out for the corners.  This is a great translation of the sketch!

I absolutely adore this last card by Michelle.  I love this set and it works beautifully with these colors and the sketch!  I believe Michelle used the cupcake punch for the clouds - very clever!  She also gave them some depth with a little sponging action.  The offset sentiment over two circles is brilliant - I love the way that looks.  To get more information about these cards, head over to Michelle's wonderful blog here.

Here is the first card that I made.  I ended up using the Naturals White instead of the Whisper White cardstock.  I really like it with these colors.  I have a friend's birthday coming up and he's from Boston.  So, he loves the Patriots and Red Sox - This card has his name all over it!  I colored the main image with my markers and stamped.  I wanted the sun to be yellow and didn't think it would be a pretty if I first stamped in black and colored it in.  I think this technique worked well with this image.  I then did a lot of embossing with the Big Shot.  I ran a lot of scrap pieces through a bunch of different embossing folders and then ran some of those pieces through to make the stars.  I love the texture you get!

After making the first card, I got the idea for the second card.  I got this set a while ago and have been itching to use it!  This sketch works well for sets that have a main image and then smaller images that accompany/accentuate it.  So, I used the same Whisper White and got to work stamping, punching, and assembling.  I love this card and I think my father-in-law will too!  He's Greek, so we celebrate Name Days.  He'll love the color combo and loves ship images :)

I can't believe another month has come and gone!  This year is flying by!  Next weekend, I'll post the August challenge.  Please join us if you can.  Thanks for looking and have a great day :)