December Challenge Cards

Thanks to Michelle and Regina for making awesome December challenge cards!

Here was the challenge:

First up is Michelle's card.  Isn't this adorable?  I love that she used the embossing folder to get the angled texture on the edges - nice!  The Santa is adorable.  Simply awesome, Michelle!

Next up is Regina's card.  I love this beautiful Christmas tree with the twine looking like it is part of the tinsel!  The use of the designer paper on the borders is a great touch and great use of color.  Love this card, Regina!

I wish you all a very Happy New Year and thanks for looking!

December Challenge

Please join us as we create cards using the following challenge!

November Challenge and The Cards

Michelle found a picture with some amazing colors on it.  So, we decided to use it as our inspiration this month. 

First up is my card.  I had a hard time with these bold colors and didn't want to overdo them.  So, I decided to use a navy base.  I love this new embossing folder, so had to use that!  I thought the colors might be fun for a different Christmas card.  So, this is what I ended up making.  :)

Here is Michelle's card.  I love it!  The framed circles are perfect for these bold colors.  I just love it!!!!  What a fun card this is.  I think anyone would be happy to get this card.  Love it, Michelle!

October Challenge - It sure was a challenge!

Hi there - here are our October challenge scrapbook pages.  Michelle and I both started in the paper craft world being scrapbookers.  But, we've since learned that it is hard to go back!  We both found this challenge to be a real challenge!

We decided to take on a vacation scrapbook page or pages for this month's challenge.  First up are Michelle's awesome beach vacation pages:

 Above is the two page spread.  Looks great!!!

 I love the fun colors of these pages and the cut out flowers and shells.  Looks like the kids sure had fun in the waves, making sand castles, and looking for shells.  I know Michelle had a great time remembering this trip while she scrapped it :)

Next up is my page.  I had a hard enough time doing one page, so I stuck to the one ;)  I've had this scrapbook paper for about 10 years.  I guess I always knew I'd get to Greece one day!  It was fun to pull it out and scrap one of my favorite vacation destinations.

If you haven't scrapped in a while, you really should!  You forget how fun and challenging it is.  But, it sure does make the pictures come alive and you get to relive some wonderful moments and memories.

Thanks for looking!

October color challenge

I was able to sit down and do my stamping group's color challenge this weekend. 

 I was having a hard time with the colors until I thought of this cute little forest creature set.  Somehow, the Cherry and Pumpkin made me think of mushrooms!  I've never seen mushrooms outside of animations these colors, but I knew I had to do them!  They are really the only pop of color in this card, but they were the inspiration!  I love this set - so many cute ones to choose from!

Hope you have a wonderful day!  Thanks for looking :)

October Challenge

Happy Fall!  Please join us as we scrapbook this month :)  Here's the challenge:

September Challenge Cards

Happy Fall!  I'm looking forward to the leaves turning soon.  It's making me want to create some Fall cards...

But for now, let's see the cards Michelle and I made for September's challenge :)

Here was the challenge:

First up is Michelle's card that inspired the design and colors of the challenge.  I love the double bow on this card - it is so beautiful!  I also love the color placement - simply beautiful, Michelle!

Next up is my card.  See?  I told you I was feeling Fall!  I used this stamp that I got last year and have been wanting to use for a while.  I used my markers to color the stamp and then put it to paper.  I then used my new Brother Scan n Cut to cut out the image and mats for the image.  I love how it turned out.

Great challenge, Michelle!  I'm looking forward to next month.  It sure will be a challenge since I haven't scrapbooked in about a decade!!! 

I wish you all a wonderful weekend and thanks for looking!

SU Little Debbie Challenge!

As I said, I do love a challenge :)

My sister's SU! group started up a monthly color challenge.  I want to participate and join in the fun.  So, I created this card for these colors.  I love the colors together, but when trying to figure out what to do, I had a really hard time.  Thus, the many layers.  Feels a bit like cheating, but that's okay!  I did it anyway ;)

Check out the colors that our resident color expert (Gaylyn) picked for September:

 And here is my card.  I love this little bird set and thought I could use all of the colors in this one image.  There was just too much blank space for my taste, so I added the clear buttons with some Island Indigo twine.  Love those buttons!

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

My Curvy Keepsakes Box

My sister and upline challenged her team to make a Curvy Keepsakes Box recently.  She holds monthly meetings and for those of us that cannot attend, she mailed the pieces to us! 

I love challenges :)

I was thinking of making mine into a rabbit, but time didn't allow for me to spend all of the time figuring it out, so instead I grabbed a stamp set I haven't had a chance to use yet and the new tree set and punch.  I even sponged the top to give the top of the box a little more color and contrast.

This is what I ended up making:

Thanks, Debbie!  This sure was fun :)  Check out what Debbie and some of my stamping sisters created on Debbie's blog here!

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

September Challenge

Happy September!  Michelle got really creative with the new In Colors and the card she made determined the colors and sketch!  Join us this month as we celebrate with the new In Colors:

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

August Challenge Cards

Happy Saturday!

Here are the challenge cards for August :)

First, the challenge:

Unfortunately, when Regina created this sketch design and challenge, we didn't know Stampin' Up! would be retiring the wheels.  But, since we've been at this for a long time, we all have a bunch of them to use :)  So, I'm glad we had a challenge using them.

First up is Michelle's card.  Isn't this cute?  I love the clean lines of this card.  It would be a really cute card for grade school teacher, no?  It's just beautiful!

Next is my card.  I really love the tea stamp sets and for some reason, I felt I needed to use this stamp!  So, I started digging through my wheels and thought this one would be a good match for the stamped image.  I decided to use Pear Pizzazz in addition to the other colors since the images would be lost if I stamped them in Sahara Sand.  They wouldn't look right if I stamped them in Early Espresso.  So, that's why there is an extra color added :)

We have another card to show you!  Debbie did this beautiful card using all stamps.  She made the "wheeled" piece with a stamp - looks great!  I love the sweet bird image - makes me think of birds waking up with the sun :)  To read more about this card, please visit Debbie's awesome blog here.

Unfortunately, Regina was not able to join us this month.  But, I'm sure she'll be back with us next month!  I'm looking forward to another challenge :)  Please join us!

Have a wonderful day and weekend!  Thanks for looking :)

August Challenge

Happy August!

Please join us this month as we create cards using this design.  Regina is once again challenging us!  Break out your stamping wheel and get rolling!

My Shoebox Swap Card

Every year, my sister and SU! upline hosts a shoebox swap for her downline.  I love this event.  It's so great to see my stamping friends, get great ideas and cards, and just have a really fun time!

This year, I wanted to use all of the SU! gold items:  sparkly paper, metallic paper, and vellum.  However, when I was trying to decide on a design, the silver items ended up working better!  Plus, there is some silver ribbon that is current!

I decided to use my Happy Hour stamp set for the glasses and then stamped them out again on the back side of the silver glitter paper.  If you do this, use your StazOn ink for this.  The Memento doesn't dry on the back of the glitter paper.  Also, I used the StazOn ink to stamp the sentiment on the vellum.  Again, the Memento didn't seem to dry on the vellum either!  So, it is nice to have both types of ink!

Wow, vellum is a stinker to try to adhere!  I found that nothing worked - I tried about three types of tape and three different glues.  I read to use a glue dot, but that didn't work either.  So, I finally got smart and decided to use a brad to hold the vellum in place.  I love these candy dot brads from SU!  I didn't realize that the little pearls fit in them too - what a great discovery!  

Here is the finished product!

We also do a gift exchange.  The gifts have to be handmade.  I love that!  I used a gift bag I received from a recent store purchase and embellished it with really old SU! DSP.  The paper is so old that it only has a design on one side!  Guess I've been with SU! for a long time!

I love these paint cans.  I pulled some beloved chocolate DSP and decorated it with some chocolate stamped images.  I then put the paper on the inside of the can.  I somehow didn't center the image on the paper so ran the ribbon through the plastic (cut with Xacto) and tied a big ribbon on the side that was uneven :)  I was very happy with myself for thinking for thinking of this.  Yes, it is those little things in life!

 I filled the can with chocolates, hot chocolate, and a Target gift card :)  What girl wouldn't like that???  Here is the lid of the can.

Well, another year's meeting done! 

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Regina's 2nd July Challenge Card!

Regina made another card for this month's challenge - check it out!

Isn't it pretty?  I love the polka dotted DSP and the striped DSP against it.  The scalloped border under the stripes goes so well with the scalloped circle punch.  Great job again, Regina! 

To see more on this card, please visit Regina's site here.

Thanks for looking!

July Challenge Cards

Happy Saturday!  It's a hot one today, but at least it is sunny and there is a little breeze every now and again :)

Here are the cards we made using the challenge Regina created.  The challenge:

 First up, we have Regina's adorable card!  How cute is this?  I love the colors and all of the embellishments and layers on this card.  It's wonderful!  To read more about this adorable card and to see more of Regina's amazing creations, please visit her blog here:

 Next, we have Michelle's oh-so-cute birthday card!  Look how fun this card is!  Who wouldn't feel like a kid receiving this fun card?  I love the pendant with the different ice creams and the funky background.  The balloons are the perfect focal point.  Very fun, Michelle!

 My sister Debbie joined us again this month and she and her Sister in Stamping (see card below) used our challenge for their weekly post!  You can read more about their weekly posts and see their fabulous creations on their Sisters In Stamping website here.

I love the colors Debbie used on this card and that flower just pops right off the card!  The small banner punched pieces are just too cute!  To read more about Debbie's card, please visit her amazing blog here.

 Next up is Rachel Yurkanin's card - how cute is this?  I can't even imagine how long it took to cut out those images, but it is super cute.  This would be a great birthday card for a boy, no?  To read more about this card, please visit Rachel's blog here.

 

Last up is my card.  I must have been feeling the Maritime love like Rachel!   I flipped the sketch upside down so that I could create the "waves" with a scrap piece of paper.  I pretty much only used this Maritime DSP for this card.  I only stamped the happy birthday sentiment.  I love DSP and this was a great challenge for me - it goes to show that you don't always have to stamp.  Many of the papers lend themselves to layers and creations that need nothing else!

Thanks for another great challenge, Regina!  Looking forward to the next one :)

Thank you for looking!  Have a wonderful day and rest of the weekend!

July Challenge

Happy July! 

Please join us this month in creating a card using this beautiful design by Regina :)  She's challenging us to use our scraps.  I think this is a great idea; I know I always have tons of scraps.  Looking forward to seeing what creations are made with this sketch!

June Challenge Cards

Hello Crafty Friends!  Can you believe that June is almost over?  This month has truly flown by!  So, time to post our cards :)

Here was the challenge:

 First up - Regina!  She created this sketch and chose the colors as well.  She made two cards using this challenge and I really like them both!  The first card is a baby card.  Isn't it adorable?  I love that little bunny stamp and using the smoky slate color on it is just perfect!  I also love how Regina spritzed the background piece and added the pearls.  It is just the perfect embellishment for this card.  To read more about this card, please visit Regina's blog here.

 Here is Regina's second card.  She is using a new set that just came out.  I love that little crab!  I love the "rope" used as ribbon on this card and I also really like the way Regina used the colors.  There are just hints of the purples, but it really makes the octopus and crab stand out.  This is a really cute card!  To read more about this card and to see other creations by Regina, please visit her blog here:

 Next we have Michelle's card.  I love the simple beauty of this card.  Michelle nailed this challenge!  The flowers and the sentiment stamped on the flower is perfect.  Love it Michelle!

 Here's one by my very talented sister Debbie!  Her use of color is amazing to me too.  The use of the DSP on this card really makes the sentiment and butterfly pop.  I also like the textured circle under the butterfly - beautiful.  To read more about this card and to see more beautiful creations by Debbie, please visit her blog here:

 And last up is my card.  I have done two tea parties for clients this year, so am in love with my tea stamp sets :)  I decided to use some of the stamps in the set that I normally don't use.  I created my own DSP by stamping the flower image in Smoky Slate on the Smoky Slate card stock.  I also didn't have ribbon that would work on this card, so I cheated and used card stock that I cut into thin strips. 

Thanks for looking!  Hope you'll join us next month for our next challenge!  Have a great day and week!

June Challenge

Happy June!  Here's another design challenge created by our talented Regina :)  Join us, please!

I think these colors will be so elegant and beautiful together.  I can't wait to see what everyone creates :)

May Challenge - Lots To Show!

I know we have one more Saturday this month, but I'm too excited not to post all of the great cards made for this challenge!  Here's the sketch and colors:

 First up is the first of three cards Regina made for this challenge.  The sketch is Regina's and we all love it!  Isn't this a cute card?  I love the textured looking background from stamp and love the whimsy of the rest of the card.  To see more about this card, please check out Regina's post here.

 Here is Regina's second card using the sketch and colors.  I love the twine behind the focal stamp.  It's so much fun!!!  The chevron designer paper looks great as the background with the polka dotted paper against it.  This is a super cute card too!  To see more about this card, please check out Regina's post here.

Here is Regina's third card for this challenge.  She really did such a great job on this challenge!  I love the textured background on both of the pieces.  The staples add such a fun touch.  The little flowers on the sides of the main sentiment really add just that extra something - love it!  To see more about this card, check out Regina's post here.

This next card is by Lisa Schneider.  She's on the same team as Regina - love our friends from Germany!!!  Isn't this card cute and doesn't it just scream summer?  I think Lisa did an amazing job.  If I am understanding correctly, this is her first attempt at a challenge.  She totally nailed it - amazing!!!  I think the simplicity of the card with color is fantastic.  I also love the "stitching" around the banner.  Love this card, Lisa!  Thanks so much for joining us this month.   We hope you'll join us more often :)  To see more on this card, please check out Lisa's post on her blog here.

Next up is Michelle!  The stamped image was made for this challenge, no?  I love that this card looks so clean and neat.  The textured background gives it some whimsy.  The ribbons add such a classy touch.  I love this card, Michelle - nice, nice, nice job!   Here are the recipe ingredients to Michelle's card: 

---Stamp sets: Serene Silhouettes, Fabulous Phrases

---Accessories: Daffodil Yellow Stitched ribbon, Tempting Turquoise ribbon, Pearls, Decorative Dots embossing folder,Spellbinders Big scalloped circles large & circle punch

Here we have Debbie Naylor's first card for this challenge!  Isn't this beautiful?  Debbie just has a way with colors, in my opinion.  I love how she puts them together.  It's funny because we are sisters and so different!  Debbie keeps things clean and simple.  I tend to overdo everything!  LOL!  I do love Debbie's take on this card.  It really makes the sentiment untrue - this card is perfect :)  To read more about this card, please visit Debbie's post on it here.

Debbie also made another card using the sketch because she loved this sketch so much (great job, Regina!)  I think this card is also beautiful, in that clean and simple way.  Love that use of DSP!  Debbie also made a video showing how she made this card.  Please check out her blog post and video here!

Last up is my card.  You know I love DSP and ribbon!  The ribbon is actually what helped me decide with paper to use.  I love the polka dots on the ribbon and decided to match it with the DSP.  The banner framelits sure do make this sketch easy!  I haven't used this flower stamp yet and thought it would be the perfect focal point.  I stamped the image in all three colors and then used the coordinating punches for each piece.  I popped each piece up using dimensionals.  

Thanks to all that participated this month.  If we get any others, I'll certainly be happy to post them.

Hope you all have a wonderful and safe Memorial Day and weekend.  Thanks for looking!