Lovely as a Tree Christmas Card

This weekend I am having a stamp camp and we will making Christmas projects.  This is one of the cards we will making.  I used the Snow Burst embossing folder on a piece of Crumb Cake c/s, ripped and distressed it, and then folded it at the bottom securing with sticky strip tape.  The tree was embossed on a piece of First Edition Specialty designer paper using white embossing powder and then sponged with Crumb Cake and Cherry Cobbler ink around the image.  I distressed the edges and added some Chocolate Chip brads.  Added an Old Olive button with neutral twine threaded through the button holes.  Here's the details:

Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Warmest Regards
Inks: Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip
Papers: Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler, Holly Berry Bouquet DP, First Edition Specialty DP
Accessories: Big Shot, Snow Burst EF, Old Olive Button, Neutral Twine, Chocolate Chip Brads, Heat Gun, White EP, Sponges, Modern Label Punch, Distressing Tool, Sticky Strip Tape, Dimensionals, Mini-Glue Dots

Scrappin' STARS Blog Hop

Welcome to my blog, and the Scrappin' Stars Blog Hop!  You have just hopped over from Holly's awesome blog and if you need to go back and check out her fab projects, you can just click HERE.  This month's blog hop is featuring projects made with SU's incredible digital software program, MDS.  I have to admit that I am a newbie at digital scrapbooking, but I am inspired to more projects after creating the pages below.  It is so easy and I can't wait to have more time to play and catch up on my scrapbooking!

For my first project I thought I would try a summer theme page.  These pics were taken a few years ago and as you can see, my daughter loves to relax and read while floating on my raft and the guys like to mix it up on the larger raft.

(Images © Stampin' Up!)

Chelsie graduated from high school in May, and I created this picture.  I'm telling you, MDS is awesome to use for newbies like me and digital scrapbooking pros!

(Images © Stampin' Up!)

This is a page that created in honor of my mom who passed away 5 years ago from lung cancer.  She was an incredible woman and she was my hero.  I can't wait to be together with her in heaven for an eternity!

(Images © Stampin' Up!)

For my last project, I actually printed off the sailboat from the Open Sea download on to a piece of 8-1/2" x 11" Natural cardstock.  I then watercolored in the boat and the sails with various inks.  I then cut out the sails and mounted them using dimensionals.  I then threaded some black thread over the sails to give the picture more dimension.  It was pretty easy to do, and it probably took me about an hour from start to finish.  I now need to find a shadow box to put it in, but this simply frame will do for now!

(Images © Stampin' Up!)

And one last project, I had to make sure I did a page for my son, Ben.  He was in 8th grade and played with the Mundelein Jr. Football League at the time.  This is a simple and fun page that I created.

(Images © Stampin' Up!)

Your next stop on the hop is Nancy's blog and you can click HERE to hop on over to see her awesome projects!  Thanks for stopping by; I hope you liked my projects!

Creative Sketches Challenge Card

Welcome to this week's Creative Sketches Challenge!  This week it's all about flowers and lace, as you can see in the sketch below.  Fun challenge - come play along!  You can view the Creative Sketches blog HERE, and all the instructions to download your challenge card are on the site.

I combined the 2 stamps sets, Nature Walk (saying and bee) and Field Flowers (flower and stem), for my card.  I used the retired designer paper, Botanical Gazette for the background.  I used a barely wet watercolor brush to pick up the color on the large flower image after I stamped it on a piece of Very Vanilla c/s using a Cherry Cobbler IP.  Distressed the edges of the dp with my distress tool and added some Cherry Cobbler brads.  I like how the card turned out; can't wait to see what you come up with!  Thanks for stopping; here's the details on my card:

Stamps: Nature Walk, Field Flowers
Inks: Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso, Old Olive
Papers: Very Vanilla, Early Espresso, Cherry Cobbler, Botanical Gazette DP
Accessories: Big Shot, Vintage Wallpaper EF, Watercolor Brush, Early Espresso Satin Ribbon, Cherry Cobbler Brads, Distressing Tool, Scallop Trim Border Punch, Round Tab Punch, Scissors, Sponge, Dimensionals, Paper Piercing Tool

New In-Color LNS Challenge

This week's LNS challenge was to use 2 of the new In-Colors in your project.  I thought I would try pairing Lucky Limeade and Wisteria Wonder, and I love how these colors look together!  Very soft and complimentary.  I don't have any Lucky Limeade ribbon, so I dyed a piece of the Whisper White Organza ribbon and love how it turned out as well!  To soften the look of the flower, I stamped off twice when I stamped the bottom flower image using Wisteria Wonder.  Otherwise it was just too dark and the top image looked muddy.  I used the Four Frames set for the frame and used my SAMJ to place the saying.  Added some pearls, distressed the edges, and of course had to use my Big Shot and an EF to add some dimension!  Thanks for stopping by, hope you're having a great day!  Here's the details:

Stamps: Field Flowers, Four Frames
Inks: Lucky Limeade, Wisteria Wonder
Papers: Very Vanilla, Wisteria Wonder, Lucky Limeade
Accessories: Big Shot, Vintage Wallpaper EF, SAMJ, Whisper White Organza Ribbon, Pearls, Decorative Label Punch, Distressing Tool, Sponge, Scissors, Dimensionals, Mini-Glue Dots

Remembering...........LNS Challenge

This week's LNS challenge was to make a card remembering 9/11.  I will always remember what I was doing the exact time the second plane went into the tower.  I was on the phone with my mom and we watched everything unfold together.  Neither one of us wanted to hang up, and we cried together as we watched these awful events play out.........

Unfortunately for this challenge I do not have any stamp sets that are military/symbolic in nature, so I went with a saying from MDS, "for all you do".  I printed the saying on Whisper White c/s and then cut it 5" x 3-3/4" in size.  I then stamped the flower using a StazOn IP and colored in using Poppy Parade and Not Quite Navy IP.  I drew the border with a Basic Black marker, added some ribbon and pearls, and distressed the edges a bit.  Here's the rest of the details.

Stamps: Simply Soft, For All You Saying from MDS

Inks: Black StazOn, Poppy Parade, Not Quite Navy, Basic Black Marker

Paper: Whisper White, Poppy Parade

Accessories: Poppy Parade Ribbon, Pearls, Distressing Tool, Watercolor Brush, Mini-Glue Dots

New Blog Hop for Hopping Just for the Fun of it Cards!

Welcome to my blog and the New Blog Hop for Hopping Just For the Fun Of It Cards!  You just arrived from RaissaStamp's Blog; great projects and I love the stockings she made!!  For my project I used a few of the new goodies I got the other day from the holiday mini.  I also love the way we can make "lollies" with the Simply Scored Scoring Tool!  Don't you think the new Stocking Builder Punch is awesome?  Thanks for stopping by!!

Stamps: None
Papers: Whisper White, Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green, Frostwood Lodge DP
Inks: None
Accessories: Big Shot, Snow Burst EF, Stocking Builder Punch, Mini Jingle Bells, Winter Wishes Stitched Felt, Northern Frost Sizzlits Decorative Strip Die, Cherry Cobble Bakers Twine, Cherry Cobbler Quilted Ribbon, Dimensionals, Mini-Glue Dots, Simply Scored Scoring Tool

Your next stop on the tour is My Little Patch of Dirt, and you can see the awesome projects HERE!  You can also find the list of all the wonderful blogs on today's hop here:
00 start        Hopping Just for the Fun of it

1                  Bluegrass Stamper Studio 

2                  Life with a Wiener Dog

3                  Stamper Shirley

4                  The Creative Stamptuary

5                  Stampin' and Scrappin' News

6                  Stamin Ldyglfr62

7                  RaissaStamps

8                  Stampin' Fevre

9                  My Little Patch of Dirt

10                InkPaperStamps

11                Scrappy Stamps and Ink    

12                Stamping with Janice

13                Technostamper

14                My Creative Impressions                 

15                Pretty Inky                    

16                Artful Imagination        

17                The Love of Stamping 

two more add on blogs links here and added on thru my blog,

                     Stamping Trails        

                     A Touch of SOL

My First "Lollie"

Have you seen the newest craze - the "Lollies"?  You can make the cutest wreaths as shown in the new holiday mini on page 6 using Stampin' Up!'s new Simply Scored scoring tool.  The lollies also make really cute accents on cards, scrapbook pages, etc.  Below is my first "lollie"!  I found a wonderful tutorial by Heather Summers that you can see HERE.  These babies are easy and you can make them fairly quickly.  I used some retired designer paper for my first lollie and a Baja Breeze button in the middle.  Have a great weekend everyone!

Thursday Creative Sketch Challenge!

Welcome to this Thursday's Creative Sketch Challenge!  The challenge this week was to make a card using Basic Gray, Cherry Cobbler and Peach Parfait as show in the drawing below:

For my card I thought I would go with a "semi" masculine style card (semi because I added some butterflies). Thanks for stopping by - hope you give this great challenge a try and you can load your card HERE.  Here's the details on my card:

Stamps: Pocket Silhouettes
Papers: Whisper White, Basic Gray, Peach Parfait
Inks: Peach Parfait, Cherry Cobbler, Basic Gray
Accessories: Big Shot, Square Lattice EF, 1-1/4" Circle Punch, Windows Punch, Beautiful Wings Embosslit Die, Cherry Cobbler and Basic Gray Brads, Cherry Cobbler 1/2" Scallop Dots Ribbon, Sponge, Dimensionals, Post-it-Note, Dimensionals

Field Flowers Birthday Card

Someone asked me to make a birthday card for someone at school and this is what I came up with.  Very quick and easy card, but also very elegant.  I inked up the Hello, Doily stamp with Crumb Cake, stamped off and then lightly stamped in on a piece of 5" x 4-3/4" Whisper White cardstock.  After stamping the flower image on the card using Old Olive for the stem and Rich Razzleberry for the flower, I distress and ripped the edges using a distressing tool, and then sponged some Crumb Cake on the edges.  Added some Crumb Cake brads and ribbon and there you have it!  Have a great weekend everyone - Ben's football team is playing way out in Prairie Ridge tonight and it should be a good game!  Go Mustangs!

Stamps: Field Flowers, Hello, Doily, Itty Bitty Backgrounds, Watercolor Trio (saying)

Inks: Rich Razzleberry, Crumb Cake, Old Olive

Papers: Whisper White, Rich Razzleberry

Accessories: Crumb Cake Ribbon and Brads, Distressing Tool, Sponge, Dimensionals, SAMJ

Creative Sketches Challenge Card

I had such a crazy week last week and was unable to participate in the Creative Sketch Challenge.  I thought for this sketch I would pull out one of my favorite Halloween sets, A Haunting We Will Go.  I love the little cat from this set!  I colored in the pumpkin with Pumpkin Pie and then Tangerine Tango, and the little cat with Basic Gray.

Here's this week's sketch - hope you can play along!  You can the link for the Creative Sketches blog HERE.

And here is my card, along with the details:

Stamp Sets: A Haunting We Will Go, Just Flying By (spider)
Inks: Black StazOn, Pumpkin Pie, Tangerine Tango, Blushing Bride, Garden Green, Basic Gray, Basic Black
Papers: Whisper White, Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black, Halloween Night DP
Accessories: Big Shot, Spider Web EF, Watercolor Brush, Decorative Label Punch, Luggage Tab Punch, 1-3/8" Circle Punch, Black Thread, Scissors, Dimensionals

LNS Tearing It Up!

This week's LNS challenge is to make a card that has some type of tearing on it.  I made this card using the new Spice Cake DP from the new Holiday Mini.  Don't you just love the colors?  I ran a piece of Very Vanilla c/s through my Big Shot using the rectangle Designer Frames EF (page 218).  I then stamped the basket/pear image from on the sets in the Holiday Mini, Always Thankful, using a black StazOn inkpad in the middle of the designer frame.  I then water colored in the image using Pear Pizzazz, Soft Suede, More Mustard, and Pool Party.  I distressed the edges of the designer paper with a distressing tool and lightly tore the edges.  Added a few brads and there you have it!  Here's the details:

Stamps: Always Thankful
Inks: Black StazOn, Pear Pizzazz, More Mustard, Pool Party, Soft Suede
Papers: Very Vanilla, Pool Party, River Rock, Spice Cake DP
Accessories: Big Shot, Designer Frames EF, More Mustard Brads, Antique Brad, Lace Ribbon Border Punch, Very Vanilla Satin Ribbon, Distressing Tool, Paper Piercing Tool, Watercolor Brush, Scissors, Dimensionals, Mini-Glue Dots

LNS Challenge

Since last night I have been to 4 football games!  My son's sophomore game (which they won) and the varsity game last night, JV and freshman game this morning - that's a lot of football!  I am now in stamp camp mode and the following is another card for my stamp camp tomorrow.  This week's LNS challenge is to make a card using your favorite things - for me that list includes ribbon, buttons, markers, my distressing tool, and the hostess set, Simply Soft.  This is a pretty simple card to make and like the results.  The flower was watercolored in using the new Calypso Coral and Island Indigo In-Colors, and I free-hand drew the lines with a black marker.  I think the next time I do this card, I might place the ribbon across the upper left-hand corner.  Thanks for taking a peek!

Stamps: Simply Soft, Watercolor Trio (saying)
Inks: Black StazOn IP, Calypso Coral, Island Indigo, Basic Black Marker
Papers: Whisper White, Calypso Coral
Accessories: SAMJ, Calypso Coral 3/8" Ruffed Ribbon, Distress Tool, Brights Button, White Baker's Twine, Mini-Glue Dot

Field Flowers

My favorite set right now to use if called Field Flowers, and you can find this awesome set onpage 120 in the new 2011/12 Idea Book.

I saw a card in the SCS gallery by Lori Burkitt, and loved how she layed out her card (you can see this beauty HERE).  I took the basic layout and applied it to the card below.  This is one of the projects we will be doing at my stamp camp tomorrow!

Stamps: Field Flowers, Script, Always Thankful (saying)
Inks: Soft Suede, Old Olive, Marina Mist
Papers: Very Vanilla, Soft Suede, Beau Chateau DP
Accessories: Large Oval Punch, Very Vanilla Brads, Early Espresso 3/8" Quilted Satin Ribbon, Paper Piercing Tool, Sponge, Scissors, Dimensionals, Distressing Tool

SU Stars Blog Hop

Welcome to my stamping blog and the SU Stars (Click here to see the blog) Fabulous Folds Blog Hop!  You have just arrived from Angela Walters wonderful BLOG - don't you just love the name of her blog?  Live with a Wiener Dog!

To create my card, I took a 11" x 5" piece of Whisper White cardstock and scored it on the 11" side at 2", 3"-1/2", 7-1/4" and 9".  I then folded the ends back and then folded the center scored lines in.  Simple card to make and the folds give the card a unique look.  I inked up the Hello, Doily stamp with Crumb Cake and then stamped off first before stamping the cardstock.  I stamped the stem with Old Olive and then used my SAMJ to place the flowers.  One flower I stamped on a piece of scrap white c/s and then cut it out and mounted it with a dimensional.  I love the look when you combing the Hello, Doily and Field Flowers sets together!  My 2 favorite sets right now!  Here's my project:

What the card looks like when it's closed

What the card looks like when it's open

As you can see, you then attach the main stamped image/cardstock

on the left-hand side of the panel so you can then open the card.

Here's what I used to make the card:

Stamps: Hello, Doily, Field Flowers

Inks: Crumb Cake, Rich Razzleberry

Papers: Whisper White, Crumb Cake, Rich Razzleberry

Accessories: Big Shot, Vintage Wallpaper EF, Rich Razzleberry Satin Ribbon, Crumb Cake Brads, Distressing Tool, Paper Piercing Tool, Dimensionals, Sponge, Scissors

Now it's time to head over to Barb Furlong's wonderful blog and project - simple click on this LINK to get to her blog.  Thanks for stopping by - I hope you enjoyed my project!

The following is a list of the SU Stars blogs:

Life with a Wiener Dog
Stampin' Fevre
The Love of Stamping
Add a Little Dazzle
Scrappy Stamps & Ink
Stampin' and Scrapping News
Bluegrass Stamper Studio
Stamping with Janice
Denise Foor Studio PA
Krafting with Karen
Raissa Stamps

Creative Sketches Challenge Card

The roofers are working on the roof directly above me and I got about 4 hours of sleep last night.  I am watching the materials fly by my window as am typing this.   It's gonna be a long day..........

Here's the outline of this week's sketch:

The card I did is also for this week's LNS challenge; which is to case another member's card.  I chose to case this beauty done by the very talented Mary Brown, and you can see the card HERE, and you can check out Mary's stamping blog HERE.  I absolutely love the color combo of Crumb Cake and Rich Razzleberry - what an elegant combo!  I also am loving the new set I just got, Field Flowers paired with the new background stamp, Hello, Doily.  We are going to make this baby at the my upcoming stamp camp.  And this is my card:

Stamps: Hello, Doily, Field Flowers, You're a Gem (saying)
Inks: Crumb Cake, Rich Razzleberry
Papers: Rich Razzleberry, Crumb Cake, Whisper White
Accessories: Distressing Tool, Rich Razzleberry Satin Ribbon, Crumb Cake Brads, Small Oval Punch, Paper Piercing Tool, Sponge, Dimensionals