Card Camp Finale

It's the final week of the Summer Online Card Camp and I am so excited that this week's colour palette matched a piece of patterned paper I had pulled out to use for a co-worker's baby. 

My card was inspired by Debbie Olsen's card for the June Papertrey release and features a fantastic plaid from the K & Co collections, Sea Glass.

I just love the sweet ruffled gingham around the neck.  So cute.  I've been in a bit of a stamping frenzy, so I have lots to blog for the next week or two.  Seriously.  Do come back for a quick visit.  Can't wait to share some of the cards I made for a hostess gift for a musical friend.  Have a good one & thanks for stopping by. 

fyi ... flutterby friend

I am always excited to find a new source of inspiration or a challenge to get me in a crafty frame of mind.  Last week, I discovered a brand new challenge blog called For Your Inspiration when visiting one of the uber-talented ladies in my PTI blog group.  Each week FYI gives you a photo that should jumpstart the old mojo.  This week, the challenge was to use this:

A few months ago I was crazy desperate to get my hands on Flutterby Friend.  Well, do you think I've used it once since it came home to roost?  I love that all of the images are open outlines just waiting to be coloured or paper pieced.  The FYI photo of the week is such a contrast in textures and colours, but I focused on the soft and sweet aspect instead.

And a close up on the star of the show:  

 

Isn't this little fella adorable?!?  I usually include a supply list, but time's short, it's late, and I need to get to bed.  Sorry.  LOL.  Thanks Keva for introducing me to yet another colour challenge website.  And congratulations on winning last week's challenge.  You deserved it!!

P.S. I Love You

The minute I saw this week's Play Date Cafe colour challenge I thought of PTI's Beautiful Blooms patterned paper stack.  I absolutely love this paper and was thrilled to have a reason to pull it out again.  I got a few new-to-me stamp sets in the mail this week, so I immediately decided to ink up Love Songs.

It's funny how quickly a card can come together when you start with something you love.  Hopefully I can put some more of this to good use.  I've finally started my bookmark and book plate gift sets for Christmas and think this would be perfect.  Be sure to come back soon.  I'll be posting the set I did for my littlest nephew shortly.  Until then, happy stamping!

Supplies (all PTI unless otherwise noted)

Paper - Pure Poppy, Ripe Avocado, & Beautiful Blooms, Solar White (Neenah)

Stamps - Love Songs & Everyday Button Bits

Ink - Fresh Snow, Black Staz-On

Other - white EP (Stampendous), Labels 3 (Nesties), Ocean Tides buttons, Button Twine

Monkeyin' Around

I thought that I would try my hand at this week's Curtain Call Colour Challenge.  Aren't these colours delicious?  I didn't have all of the newer SU colours, so I improvised a bit.  So, here's my take on the challenge.   Hope you like it.

The details: 

Paper - Chocolate Chip (SU), Solar White (Neenah)

Stamps - Fox & Friends (SU), Sophie's Sentiment (LF), Woodgrain (Hero Arts)

Ink - Apricot Appeal (SU)

Other - Vine trim (PTI), Top Note die (SU), Ribbon (unknown), clear EP

fall farewell

Even though the season won't officially end for a few more weeks, it seems like fall is over.  I really fell in love with SU's Fall Foliage set and am sorry that I didn't put it to more use this year.  This card started out a few weeks ago when I created the collage print.  Problem was, I got some smudges on the bottom when I was embossing the original sentiment.  Not wanting to waste anything in my craft room, I put it aside with the intention of "fixing it up" later.  Well, it's finally later. 

I cut the original print and put an avocado strip at the bottom.  I wrapped it with grosgrain ribbon and accented it with a button bow.  The "thank you" sentiment is from Technique Tuesday's Loving Words set from Ali Edwards.  I {heart} this set.  The font and words are perfect.  The white embossing is a nice contrast to the dark chocolate base.

Hope you make some time today to get inky!  Thanks for visiting.

Thinking of You

    

After hearing about the Play Date Cafe on Keva's blog, I finally decided to check it out and play along.  This week's challenge was to create a card that was black and white with a splash of burgandy.  This card is actually doing double challenge duty this week.  Over at CASE Study, their card challenge for the week was to use these cards as the inspiration for a creation of your own.    I used lots of Papertrey goodies to create a card to send to my BFF to let her and her hubby know that they are in my thoughts and prayers.  So, here's my creation.

I started with a True Black card base and used a linen textured damask print from Recollections.  To balance out the busy background, I decided to shoot for a simple, classic, and elegant look.  I die cut the mat using the Mat Stack #1 and inked up just the dotted frame from TT: Christmas in Rhubarb Stalk (Memento).  The sentiment was taken from Mailbox Greetings and heat embossed in black.  To add the splash of burgandy, I used grosgrain ribbon under the tag and stuck on a fluffy organza double bow.  A half-back pearl was the finishing touch.

Can't wait to see what challenges the talented ladies over at the Play Date Cafe and CASE Study have in store for next week.  Thanks for sharing part of your day with me.

July Parade of Blogs

This month, we were challenged by our hostess with the mostess, Amy, to use Ocean Tides, Aqua Mist, Melon Berry, and Dark Chocolate to create something fabulous with our Papertrey goodies.


Some of these colours were not my friend (yeah, I mean you Ocean Tides) and forced me to go WAAAY outside my comfort zone by using so much colour. Since I was trying something new, I decided to really shake things up and go big, and go square. I also decided to let the patterned paper be the star of the show. When it uses all four colours, it deserves to take centre stage.



Now, excuse me while I blog-hop. I can't wait to see what the other ladies have created. If you'd like to join me, the hop starts here. Thanks for swinging by!

The Details ...
Stamps - Enjoy the Ride (PTI)
Paper - ocean tides (PTI), cameo coral (SU), October Afternoon dp
Embellies - ribbon (Michael's)
Tools - Corner Chomper

It's a Moxie Fab World

Welcome back!! One of my new found fav blogs is Papercrafts' Moxie Fab World. I just love how they give you pictures of real life objects to get the mojo flowing. This week in Moxie Fab World, the Tuesday Trigger was this picture:



The dreamy, country colour palettes aren't part of my usual card making selections, since I'm more of a neutrals girl. But, earlier this week I made a card that did use these same colours:



No sense in reinventing the wheel when this one fits the bill perfectly. Now, excuse me while I go enjoy the sunshine. It's gorgeous out today!! Cheers.

OTWC Challenge #13 & ICS #72

After looking at this week's Inspirational Card Sketch and the Off the Wall Craftiness colour challenge, I decided to maximize what little time I had and combine them into one card. My mojo started flowing after looking at this week's ICS sketch:
and the stunning table layout for colour inspiration seen here:



For my take on these challenges, I raided my stash of SU, PTI, and Bazzil cardstocks and a bubbly SEI print. The cute car is from Papertrey Ink's Enjoy the Ride set. I love the die that makes trimming this baby a snap. To save space, I stamped the sentiment from Enjoy the Ride onto a blush pink satin ribbon and ruched one end.



So, what do you think? Did I do these challenges justice?

Papertrey June Blog Hop

Good Evening Hoppers!! I'm so excited to take part in my first Papertrey Blog Hop. This month's challenge is all about colour. It was so hard to narrow it down to one combination. Lately, my cards have been all about the yellows & greens, but I went for one of my go-to favorites:



I just love the look of crisp, clean neutrals with a punch of colour. Funky ribbon treatments are so hot right now. But, they never turn out just quite right on my cards. Until this one. I was so psyched with how well the ribbon ruching turned out that I just had to use this card for the June PTI hop. You see, I found that the secret, for me at least, is to ruch it on a small strip of cardstock first, then stick that baby on to the finished card.



I really love this sentiment from Through the Trees. I think it finishes the card off nicely and makes it a perfect any occasion card for someone special.


Thanks for stopping by and happy hopping!!

Supplies Used:
Paper - kraft (SU), black (Bazzill), solar white (Neenah)
Stamps - Through the Trees (PTI), En Francais (SU)
Ink - Chestnut Roan, Bronze (ColorBox), Black (SU)
Ribbon - Offray
Other - ScorTape, embossing powder (Stampendous)

Petite Challenge #1 Goes Haywire

Just a quickie post of my first, less than stellar, attempt at this month's colour challenge and one that I am actually proud to put my name to. I've recently joined a group of uber-talented ladies on the Papertrey Forum who have created a blogging group to encourage and inspire our respective card making skills.

Each month, a different hostess posts a sketch challenge and two petite challenges of her own design. This month's challenges were provided by Jessica. Be sure to check out her blog. After you finish here, of course. LOL

To "save time," I tried to combine both the monthly sketch challenge and colour challenge to save time, but it didn't work. For this first card, I used SU cardstocks and K&Co. paper from my slowly, dwindling stash. (Must make way for PTI paper goodies.) In my mind, this paper just had to be combined with PTI's Vintage Picnic set. What do you think?

My official colour challenge card was done using Enjoy the Ride, Text Style II, and my MM Slice. I don't use that little marvel often enough. It made cutting the circle and scallop a breeze.
To jazz up the background a bit, I used Text Style II, VersaMark, and a little embossing powder and balanced it out with some paper piercing in one corner. Hope you like this one as much as I do.

Now, on to the June sketch challenge. Can't wait to see what you ladies create for Tuesday!! Enjoy the rest of the weekend.