Sketch to try

Another November day that's to reach the upper 60's! I think we've normally had some snow flurries by now, but none yet this year! Since it's a warm and sunny day, I went with some bright cheerful colors! A large standard nestability tag was used to cut paper from Basic Grey Lime Rickey for my stamping spot. The bird design paper is also Lime Rickey.

My "Thank you" is from Hero Arts. Bird by Imaginisce (sounds like the ladies on the CMA red carpet Wednesday night: Dress by....) There is a little stickle touch on the bird's flower, and I used my Bow-Easy again. Cardstock from Papertrey Ink.

I used Jen del Muro's Sketch For You To Try and my brand new Tonic 12x12 paper cutter! It sliced like butter!! Notice I have more layers than normal?? I measured stuff out! (but still did some eye-balling!).

Have a crafty day!

Sharon

Thank You

This is a cute little thank you note to have on hand for when an occasion pops up unexpectedly. The little frog was colored with Copics and cut out with my Creative Memories circle cutter and scalloped nestie. His eyes have some bling for some sparkle. I used Lime Rickey Basic Grey DP, against some PTI New Leaf.

The "Thank You" on the ribbon tag nestie is from a Hero Arts set full of "thank yous" in many different fonts and styles.

This card is also a 'thank you' to Kate for all of the wonderful goodies she sent me for the November Guest Design spot for i {heart} papers.

Happy Crafting!

Sharon

Final Birthday Bash card

Presents have been opened, cake eaten, guests have taken goodie bags home. Now what should you do? Write a thank you note for any gifts received and to the guests who attended the birthday party.

My card uses the same Doodlebug paper line and color scheme that was used for the invitation and table place card. I stamped a Verve "Thanks" in Jardin Moss on a Lablels one nestie. The challenge for day three was to use embellishments. This stumped for a bit, as I messed with some flowers, but they just weren't doing it for me. I decided the Hero Arts pearls were a nice touch.

Below is a picture of the invitation, thank you, and table place card all together. I could have made my goodie bag with the same paper & colors, but I really wanted to put up something that looked different! Most of the party elements have parts that my little helper could assist with, should we do something like this for a real party for her sometime in the future (her birthday was just a couple of weeks ago). I know she would like to help with stickles! She's gotten into them before!

Happy crafting!

Sharon

Courtney's Closet #50

WooHoo! I got a "Courtney's Closet" card made this week, and before the deadline! Every week, I plan on playing along, and it just never seems to happen. Like last week...I found some Hello Kitty stickers that would work (Courtney had on a Hello Kitty shirt) and never got to it. Hopefully you can click on the picture of her to see a larger view of the owls, raspberry colored flowers, vines, etc.

My owl, vines, and "thinking of you" are all from a Hero Arts set. The chocolate background is cuttlebugged with a swiss dots folder (Libby likes polka dots!). DP is Raspberry Fizz from PTI, along with the chocolate and ripe avocado paper.

Happy crafting!

Sharon

Jazzy Inspirations 12

Some great colors for this weeks Jazzy Inspirations! Love my blues & greens! They are the colors I wear the most and that you'll find in my closet. Thanks Tenia!

Tomorrow (Saturday afternoon) over on the Modern Sugar Blvd blog, your challenge will be to make what ever you like!!! Pick your colors...pick your sketch...pick your fav Sugarlicious image! How easy can it be?! I used a new image that will be released tomorrow, along with many fantastic gals!!

Paper & ribbon are from Target $1 Spot, and the "Yipee!" is from Hero Arts.

Ahhhhh, hear that sound??? Wait, what sound? I don't hear anything. Right! No alarm clock on the weekdays!!! (at least not too often) School is out and I am done stripping down my classroom and don't need to go back next week!! Woohoo!

Have a fantastic weekend!

Sharon

50th Anniversary

This weekend is my aunt & uncle's 50th wedding anniversary. Here is the card I made for my Mom to give...Stampin' Up! cake and PTI sentiment. Cased it from Moster's card on SCS.

The month of May is always busy...lots going on for my job, DD school stuff, birthdays galore, trying to finish up a Purdue class, nice weather hits....you get the picture! Any posts the next two weeks are short & to the point!!

Happy crafting!

Sharon

Modern Sugar Blvd Challenge

Ahhh....something that I love...a sketch challenge (and an easy one at that) and a color challenge that uses bright colors all rolled into one! Check out the challenge over at the Modern Sugar Blvd Blog today to see all the wonderful samples from the rest of the design team! Along with the sketch and sitting girl image, we were to use hot pink, turquoise, and lime green on our card. I had to laugh, because the day we received our info, the top I was wearing was turquoise with lime green and white!!

My girl was colored with Copics & Sharpie markers, then popped up on foam dots after cutting her out. I just love the bright, cheerful colors in this card! They are so "me"! Hope you can join us for the fun! I'm not sure what time the MSB post will go "live" as they are operating in Mountain Time Zone. So, be sure to check back a bit later if it's not there at first. I am scheduling this post ahead of time, as I will be gone from dawn to late afternoon participating in a May Day bird count.

Happy crafting!

Sharon

Modern Sugar Blvd.

I've decided to take the plunge and begin trying out for some design teams! A brand new store, Modern Sugar Blvd. will be opening April 20th. I used their free digi image "Shopper Girl" for my "tryout" card. She's a modern girl with attitude and knows just what she wants while out and about!

I used Glossy Accents on her boots to give them a great shine, and a pop dot behind one of the shopping bags to give it dimension. I also added tissue paper to that bag, just like a fancy boutique might do. It is paper I saved from an order I received back in January...just knew it would come in handy for crafting or gift giving!

Happy crafting!

Sharon

Stamps: Digi image (Modern Sugar Blvd.)

Paper: True Black, Summer Sunrise (PTI), DP Blossoms & butterflies (DCWV Stack)

Other: Gemstones (Hero Arts), Nesties, Bridal Confetti (Michael's), Copics, Bic Mark-Its

colored pencil, foam pop dots

Courtney's Closet #33

I just love the flowers in Courtney's dress this week! (This is Libby's daughter, not mine) So bright, happy, and cheerful! I used colored pencils and baby oil to color my flower, which is from Hero Arts. Gina K's StampTV technique challenge this week is to color a picture using pencils and OMS (orderless mineral spirits).

Baby oil or Goo Gone also work if you don't have oms. I tried both the baby oil and Goo Gone, and didn't find much difference between the two. I've been doing a bit of practicing with this technique, and like the results with the purple. Four different shades of purple in the image. I also tried the same flower, but with an orange/yellow scheme, and the colors didn't blend/match as well.

The butterfly was not a planned item, there was going to be some ribbon...but I smudged up some of my sponging, and needed something to cover it up! Butterfly fit the bill.

Happy crafting!

Sharon

Green Day

Sara's Perfect Color Match for this week is "Green Day" using PTI's Spring Moss, Ripe Avocado, and New Leaf. I had my best success to date with embossing! This was the third try for the crocodile, and the best one! I'm a bit paranoid about catching my paper on fire, so I emboss in the kitchen so I can quickly run any flaming paper to the sink! Hopefully, this will never happen!

For my sketch, I used one from Jeanette's Sweet 'n Sassy sketch challenge last week during the SnS release party. With using both color & sketch challenges, this card came together very quick for me! Also, a bit more layers than my normal, but I'm feeling good about this one! I used my Creative Memories Oval cutter, and Label 1 Nestabilities, so there was no measuring!!

Still very cold here, but the birds were singing like a spring day when I arrived home from work. And, it's staying lighter in the evenings!!! About three and a half weeks and my daffodils should be blooming!!!

Happy crafting!

Sharon

Split Screen

Another day, another StampTV challenge card! Melanie issued a challenge to make a card using a split screen image. This was something I have not done before, and it was a fun card to make! Right away I thought of using this little giraffe from Hero Arts...and to say something with "Stretching" for the giraffe's long neck!! I'm goofy that way! From PTI I used Lemon Tart as my card base, and Summer Sunrise for the back of the image panel. I had to hand write the sentiment, (Stretching across the miles......to say, "Hello!") as the cardstock will not run through my printer. Button is from PTI, and the gold flowers were a gift. I had a different piece of DP all picked out, and when I went to put things together, this Digi piece from Gina K was laying there from yesterdays card, and I used up the scrap. Then I thought...oh tee hee hee, these are Gina K colors of the yellow, green, and a bit of orange!!! Didn't plan that at all, just one of those coincidences!

Happy crafting!

Sharon

StampTV color challenge

Cindy over at StampTV has a color challenge this week using the SU! (or close to it) colors of: Always Artichoke, Apricot Appeal, and Pumpkin Pie. I used the "close to" option when coloring my owl from Hero Arts. I used colored pencils (various brands) and baby oil. I had planned on trying the "kissing technique" but discovered I don't have any solid stamps to try that with! I also thought I was going to do the sketch challenge over there, and that wasn't clicking , either!! And it's such an easy sketch! Maybe it'll work for me tomorrow! I hadn't planned on trying the color challenge, and that ended up being the one that worked! My ribbon color actually coordinates better IRL! It's from Target $1 Spot, and has little circles, just the DP. Both of the DP's are digi downloads from Gina K.

Wow!! It's been three months since I started my blog, and people other than my Mom read it!!! DH was pretty amazed when I told him tonight that there are people subscribed through Google Reader and who show up as a "Follower"!!! Thanks to all of you...! If you had told me at this time last year that I would be making cards, writing a blog, entering challenges, having fun in the stamp community...I would have laughed at you! I thought blogs were a nutty idea ;-) Didn't know about crafting blogs!! Not so nutty anymore. Anyway, thanks to everyone who follows along and checks up on things!!

Happy crafting!

Sharon

Guest Designer Call

I've decided to just stick a little toe out and enter the call for the February Guest Designer spot at Whimsy Stamps. I needed to use a sketch provided (and I love sketch challenges) and an animal stamp in my card. I tried to pick the "cutest" animal stamp I own, since I do not have any stamps from Whimsy at the moment. Denise's stamps are cute, whimsical animals with adorable expressions! I used all Basic Grey papers in the card, along with the brad. The sentiment is from Verve. I tried several times to have an embossed sentiment, but kept having stray embossing powder even after wiping paper with 1) dryer sheet and 2) corn starch. I keep practicing...

Happy crafting!

Sharon

Mojo Monday #68

Sigh...I was about ten minutes too late finishing this card to have it considered for the prize from Verve Stamps. But, I'm still going to post it over at Mojo Monday blog. I know, had a whole week to think about it, but nothing hit until today...about an hour before they were all due. Went with some nice bright & cheerful colors for a gray day. Stamps are from Hero Arts.

Happy crafting!
Sharon

Happy Birthday...Dad

My Dad's birthday was the 28th, and I made this quickly on the 24th trying to get it out in the mail before pick-up. Our mail lady came a bit earlier than normal that day. Wonderful when one is expecting goodies in the mail, but not for getting a card out on time! Normally, it only takes one day from here to my parents' house, but of course, it took two days this time. Had to wait to post in case they took a peek at the blog.

Anyhoo...Dad is an award winning amateur photographer, and will lay in the wet grass/weeds/snow, etc. to get the perfect shot! Thought that the monkey with a camera was perfect. The stamp says, "Hang in there..." and I wrote, "...for a happy birthday!" on the inside (I think...can't remember). Monkey is Hero Arts, colored him with Bic Mark-it markers, camera sticker is Creative Memories.

With Sympathy

A co-worker's Grandmother-in-law passed away, and I needed to make a quick card to get out in the mail tomorrow. She will be out for several days, and I wanted the card to reach the family before she returns. Embossing and I are not friends yet. The powder seems to stick on other parts of the card, even after wiping it down with a dryer sheet (have never found an embossing buddy at Hobby Lobby or Jo-Ann's). I gave up the embossing idea and just stamped in a gold ink. Flower is SU! Happy Harmony and sentiment is from Hero Arts. Used my nesties to cut and emboss stamped panel, and used a gold metallic pen to trace rectangle.

On a happier note, I am sending out the baby card I made!! Baby decided to meet the world early this morning and joins three other siblings at home!

Courtney's Closet #25

This is a card for Libby's From Courtney's Closet Challenge. An acquaintance through work is due to have a baby boy any time now, and I needed an easy to mail card. I had wanted to do more layers and such, but it's late and we went to daughter's Christmas program this evening. Unfortunately, there was a long nap for me before hand, and I didn't get a chance to work on this. Elephant is from Hero Arts, and the sentiment is PTI Mixed Messages. Design paper is from the Debbie Mumm for Jo-Ann "Baby Girl" pack. I had a piece from a different pack that had stripes, but I liked the colors in this much better, and it had Libby's Polka Dots!! I used Bic Mark-It for the blue, a Sharpie orange, and Copic for the grey shadow.


Have a happy day! It's almost the weekend!


Sharon