Retrosketches #10 and The Paper Players #94

Hello friends - a quick post tonight to make the deadline for the Retrosketches #10 Challenge based on the sketch below and also for The Paper Players Challenge #94 - Mother's Day Theme.  The flowers in the inspiration photo at Paper Players are what I picked up on in creating this card for my own wonderful Mom.  Thanks for stopping by - I sure do appreciate it!

Supplies  - all are from Stampin Up!, but most are retired.  The DSP is Springtime Vintage and the ribbon is Always Artichoke Seam binding.  The Cardstock base color is Rose Red (this was one of my favs before) - I also used Always Artichoke and Very Vanilla.  The sentiment is still available and is from the Delightful Dozen set.

Happy Birthday Patrice (PPA134 and MOJO240)

Hello friends! I made this card for my dear friend Patrice's birthday using the sketch from the Mojo Monday #240 Contest and the colors from Pals Paper Arts #134 - A Color Challenge (see both below).  Happy birthday dear Patrice.... Happy Birthday to you (that's me singing - ha!).  Thanks for stopping by to visit!

Supplies (all from Stampin Up!):  Cardstock - Baja Breeze, So Saffron, Calypso Coral and Whisper White.  DSP - Paisley Petals, Pocketful of Posies, Patterns Designer Series Paper Stack (subtles collection) and Everyday Enchantment (from SAB). Sentiment is from Petite Pairs (love that set!). Ribbon is the 3/8" Ruffled ribbon in Calypso Coral.  The flower is made with the Boho Blossoms punch (and scrunched). The flower circle was made with the 2 1/2" circle punch and the saffron layer is from the 3" Circle die (sizzix).  

Dynamic Duos Debute (DD#1) and Creative Card Crew #10

Hello Friends!  I love the saying about "When Life Gives You Lemons..." - but this is even more fun :o) - BIG grin.  Seems like I have been receiving my share of life's limes lately so I literally laughed out loud when I came across this stamp set.  Thankfully, I still have more blessings than limes!  It was nearly 80 degrees here today - oh boy would it have been wonderful to sit on the porch with a couple of my best gal pals and some of those pesky limes :o).  I'm excited to enter this first ever Dynamic Duos Challenge.  The fun colors for this first challenge of Lucky Limeade and Pool Party worked perfectly for this card.  Congrats Lesley and crew - I'm looking forward to fun things from your group! Your debute creations are wonderful and inspiring.

I am also participating in another fun challenge from the design team at  Creative Crew Challenge #10 - Sentiment as Focal Point.  I really like this challenge because I love words and sayings almost more than I like the stamped images - to me the images really enhance the sentiment.  I'm hoping this sentiment focus will get someone giggling like it did me. 

Here's how I finished the inside (notice I used some more of those fun Dynamic Duo colors):

Thanks so much for stopping by to visit my blog. Hope you enjoyed my card!  I love to see my viewer numbers climbing.  I like to think that this means I have had one more opportunity to inspire someone. I enjoy getting your comments too - so please feel free to leave me a note. Hugs!

Details and supplies: Cardstock - Lucky Limeade, Pool Party and Whisper White (Stampin Up!). Stamp set - Unity Stamp Company & jillibean soup (When Life Gives you LIMES).  I embossed the drink glasses with black embossing powder then used blender pens and Lucky Limeade ink (the inside glass was done the same way but with Pool Party ink). the "salt" on the rim of the glasses is the Dazzling Details glitter glue from Stampin Up!. To get the two toned sentiment, I colored it with Stampin Write markers in Pool Party and Lucky Limeade.  The background paper is my own personal design (grinning) which I made using an older Stampin Up! set called Tart & Tangy and randomly stamped all over the Whisper White piece (random is hard for me - I still want to make it fit into a random "pattern" - but I resisted the urge this time and just went with the flow). The border strip on the bottom is from My Favorite Stamps Die-namics - Mini Monarch Border (the border on the inside of the card is the reverse piece of that).  I finished it off with a strip of Lucky Limeade ruffled ribbon and a glimmer brad.  The sentiment on the inside is from a retired Stampin Up! set called Enjoy Every Moment.  I hope you will Enjoy Every Moment - bye for now. 

Mo's DP2 Challenge #133 & 4CCC Favorite Embellishment

Hello everyone - hope you are having a wonderful day!  Doesn't the cute little fella and his dragon just make you smile?  In deciding what image to use and the theme I wanted to use for this week's Mo's DP2 Challenge #133 - Anything Goes, I went with something to make me and hopefully others smile.  After 7 years of working for a great company, and wonderful bosses, I will be losing my job soon to a Corporate buyout.  There are many at this Company who have been there lots longer than me and some that were very near retirement age.  While this is a very sad event for me and so many others, I also see it as a new opportunity.  I try everyday to find something to give thanks for, or make me smile while I'm waiting for that new opportunity to reveal itself (and I have complete faith that it will).  So, I chose to make a card that would remind me and others to find a reason to smile and to enjoy the blessings we have been given (big and small).  I also decided to enter this in the 4 Crafty Chicks Challenge - Favorite Embellishment since this card uses one of my favorite embellies - ribbon.  Hope you enjoyed this card and thanks so much for stopping by!  Here's how I finished the inside and the suggested sketch from Iulia from the design team at Mo's Challenge is also there too.  Hugs!

Supplies:  Finished card size is 5 1/4" square.  Cardstock: Pacific Point, Whisper White and Green Galore (all Stampin Up!).  DSP is from DCWV - All About Boys stack, and Celebrations (red hearts strip) from SU!.  I used the Labels Collection Framelit Die for the main image piece.  Digital image is "Kitchen Knight" from Mo Manning's Digital Pencil Too and colored with Copic markers.  Ribbon is the 1/2" scallop dot ribbon is chocolate chip (SU!). The sentiments are from Stampin Up!.  Buttons and small red ribbon piece are all from my stash of stuff.  Ink color for sentiments is Pacific Point.  

Freshly Made Sketches #33

Hello friends! Tonight I am entering this card in the Freshly Mades Sketches #33 based on the sketch from Jen Mitchell below.  We have several family members and friends graduating this year (including my son - gulp!) so getting my cards done for all of them has been foremost on my mind this past week. This card covers four of my family member's school colors.  I also made several more with a black and white theme for all of the other graduates.  This sketch was a great one to use for mass producing cards!

Here is the inside of the card - that black piece is actually a pocket I created that a gift card (or cash) can slip right into (sorry, I didn't have a g.c. or cash on hand to pop in there to show you how it looks - that is the next thing I need to get done!).  I heat embossed the sentiment with white embossing powder. 

Gonna make this a short post tonight as I promised myself I would get to bed at a decent hour for a change.  Even though this card has several layers it will still only need one stamp and no special handling to pop in the mail.  Thanks so much for stopping by - I'm sure glad you did. I hope you liked my card and saw something that inspired you.

Supplies (all from Stampin Up!):  Cardstock - Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White, Not Quite Navy and Basic Black.  Patterned paper - Patterns Designer Series Paper Stack (Regals collection - Cherry Cobbler stripes, and Neutrals collection - black dots).  Sentiment is from Word Play.  Graduation caps were printed from My Digital Studio. I colored the sentiment with my Stampin Write markers using Basic Grey, Basic Black and Cherry Cobbler.  I sponged a little Not Quite Navy around the circle with a finger dauber.  I used the 2 1/2" circle punch for the sentiment.  The sentiment inside is from a retired set - embossed with white embossing powder.

Monochromatic for Divas by Design and Mojo Monday 239

Hello everyone.  This past week has been somewhat of a blurr for me, crazy scheduled, somewhat stressful and I'm feeling a little sorry for myself that I haven't had any "fun" time for me.  I missed participating in a couple of my favorite challenges :o(  but I can say that I got a ton done that needed to be taken care of - and that's a good thing (always look for the positive) :o).  The MOJO Monday challenges usually help kick start my creativity and I had just enought time to get a card in this week.  I decided on the round shape for the Mojo Monday 239 Challenge because I already had this shape on hand from when I was designing baby cards for a recent workshop.  I had intended to make a bib out of it - but didn't get it finished in time.  I was a bit stuck with what to do with it though because everytime I looked at it, all I saw was baby (and quite frankly... unless I have a whole lot of friends who have babies in the very near future, I'm set for a long time on baby cards - LOL).  I saw that the Divas by Design challenge 33 was Monochromatic so I decided to work with the blue theme and see what I could come up with.  I am generally more inspired when I have a subject or occassion in mind, but  after a tough week my brain was still not in the creative mode and I couldn't seem to come up with a person in mind who loves blue. So... I decided to think of a theme that I have very little cards on hand for and noticed that I didn't have a single "get well" card and there have been a few times this past year it would have been handy to have one.   If you are still with me after all that rambling - thanks so much!  I sure do appreciate that you stopped by to visit my blog.  Happy Sunday!

Supplies (all from Stampin Up!): Cardstock - Bashful Blue and Marina Mist.  Bashful blue DSP from the Patterns Designer Series Paper Stack.  Bashful blue tafetta ribbon.  Sentiment from Delightful Dozen stamped with Marina Mist Ink.  I put a few little flowers from the Bordering on Romance Set at the top and bottom of the sentiment (using Versamark) - it turned out a little too subtle for me so I decided I needed to add a little bling with the basic rhinestones (colored with a sharpie marker).  I also used the decorative label punch.  The cardbase is made using the Sizzix Scallop Circle die.  I used the perfect polka dots textured embossing folder on the first layer (this is one of my favorite texture folders).   
Finished card size is 4 1/2" round and fits in the medium square envelopes.

Sweet Baby Boy Card

Hello - I'm so glad you stopped by to visit me again!  Today I am sharing another card with a stamp set out of the SU Occassions Mini catalog.  I just found out that this set will be carried over to the new catalog and I'm so excited! If you have been following this blog you will have noticed that I have used these stamps quite a lot.  That's because I think they are just too darn precious!!  This card is a clean and simple card that focuses on the sweet reason to celebrate.  You could step it up with some buttons or ribbon or brads too. You could even add a strip of the Basic Pearls across the bottom by the scalloped edging.  I chose to keep it simple.   Hope you enjoy this card and it inspires you to make something sweet!

Supplies (all are from Stampin Up!):  Cardstock - Baja Breeze, Pool Party and Whisper White. Patterned paper - Domestic Goddess (122355). Stamps - Baby Prints (125470 wood or 1254732 clear). Classic Ink - Baja Breeze (111833).  Punches - 3/16" corner (119871), 1" circle 119868), 1 1/4" circle (119861) and 1 3/8" circle (119860).  Border punch - Scallop trim border (118402).