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 :)

July Simply Paper Design Challenge

Stamp a patriotic card with us!

June Challenge Cards

It isn't quite the end of the month, but I wanted to get these challenge cards posted!  This was certainly a challenge for me this month in terms of the colors, but I loved them.  I really need to get back to color challenges!

Anyway, here was the color/sketch challenge:

First we have Michelle's card.  Isn't this beautiful?  It really does make you think of summer when you look at it.  I love that stamped image and she did such a nice job coloring the flowers in and adorning the image with die cuts in the challenge colors.  The ribbon integrated with pearls is another lovely touch.  Wow, Michelle!  That's all I can say :)  Oh, please check out Michelle's other lovely creations on her blog here.

Next is my card.  Instead of using the sketch as it is, I reversed it.  These colors are all about summer and I wanted to do something cheery and flowery!  So, I used my herb set and colored in the image with my markers.  You can't really see it, but in the middle of the flowers, I first colored Daffodil Delight, then Melon Mambo.  I love accessories and never got around to using my In Color brads.  So, I pulled those out and decided to incorporate them.  My sister was so generous as Christmas and got me all of the colored threads.  Lucky Limeade was one of them, so I was happy to use it here.  And I just love buttons!  So, I pulled my stash and decided on these :)  Done!

My sister and upline, Debbie Naylor, joined us again this month and I have to say she blew me away with this beautiful card.  Debbie's style is simply beautiful.  I tend to overwork every card with so much on them as I just don't know any other way!  Debbie likes to keep it clean, simple, and so tasteful.  I love her style.  Anyway, she loves Pool Party and look how great this card is!  She nailed this challenge with texture, bold color, and beauty.  I sure do love it.  Thanks for joining us, Debbie!  Please check out more of Debbie's beautiful creations and read more about this card on her blog here.

Lastly, Kathy Kennedy made another challenge card - thanks, Kathy!  I love the DSP she used and she did a lot of work cutting out those cute leaves and flowers.  The bird image is so cute!  She did a great job following the sketch!  To see more about this card and other Kathy creations, please check out her blog here.

I can't believe another month's challenge is complete!  Where did the year go already? 

Thanks so much for looking and please feel free to join us in upcoming challenges.  I'll be happy to post your creations with a link to your blog too!

Have a wonderful day and thanks for looking!

Hi Ma!

I recently took a Copic marker class.  I had taken one a couple years ago, but forgot what I learned :(  So, I decided I needed another!  I fell in love with this one image we used and had to get it - sucker!  I know, I know....  I had to use it right away because (1) I love her and (2) I wanted to practice what I had learned.  I knew my mother would get a kick out this card, so I made it and sent it to her.  I had a hard time deciding which colors to use until I went to my favorite thing - DSP (Designer Series Paper).  Man, I love DSP - it takes all of the guess work of deciding colors!  So, I found a sketch challenge (sorry, don't remember which one now!) and went to work on this card.  Isn't she the cutest?

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

June Simply Paper Design Challenge

Stamp along with us!

Happy Birthday, Debbie!

Today is my big sister's birthday - Happy Birthday, Debbie!  I hope you have a wonderful, wonderful day filled with fun, love, family, and friends. 

Here is the card I made for Debbie.   I cased this card here by Chat Wszelaki.  Her card was a masculine birthday card, but I changed it up to make it fun and happy - like Debbie!  I think she really likes this DSP, so I decided to use it to draw my colors.  I colored in the images and added the matching brads.  I think it is a fun card with a lot going on - I hope she likes it since it is totally different from her style!  haaaa

Anyway, again, Happy Birthday, Debbie!

Everyone, thanks for looking and have a great day!