Blue Valentine

Happy Valentine's Day! It's Tuesday, and that means a Color Challenge on splitcoaststampers.com! The colors for today's challenge are Night of Navy, Bashful Blue, and Crumb Cake.

I used the Fresh Vintage Stamp Set and Designer Frames Textured Impression Embossing Folder. Both are available FREE with a $50 purchase through March 31st!

The "Be My Valentine" sentiment is from Delightful Dozen. The ribbon is Whisper White satin ribbon that I colored by rubbing it across my Crumb Cake stamp pad. The card dimensions are 4 1/4 x 4 1/4, so that it will fit in a standard envelope.

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http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/stampinkate/

Thanks for looking!

Wrinkle Free Distress

Today's technique challenge on Splitcoaststampers.com is to create a card using the Wrinkle Free Distress technique.

I used Pear Pizzazz, Baja Breeze, and Wisteria Wonder Classic Stampin' Pads to Create the distressed background on the main panel. Then I stamped the frame image and Happy Birthday in Basic Black, the butterflies in Island Indigo, and the bird in Concord Crush, all from the Elementary Elements stamp set.

For the back layer, I made a multi-colored "stamp pad" using a baby wipe and reinkers in Pear Pizzazz, Island Indigo, and Concord Crush, and used that to stamp the Ornate Blossom.

The bow on the upper right corner was placed there to cover an overstamp...There are no mistakes, only opportunities to embellish, right?

The original challenge post and a link to a tutorial for this technique is here:

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/try-new-technique-f44/tlc364-~-wrinkle-free-distress-~-2-13-12-a-t548344.html

Thanks for looking!

Tag for Baby

I made this baby tag for the Utah Divas International My Digital Studio Monday Challenge for this week. Each Monday, they post a MDS challenge, and this week's was to create gift tags for a baby, scrapbook page or design a project featuring babies! MDS makes creating fast & easy! If you don't have it yet, ask me how you can get it FREE for 30 days! Thanks for looking!

What Goes Up, But Never Comes Down?

Your age, of course! Today's Free For All Challenge on splitcoaststampers is to "Send A Joke". Your card could either contain a joke, or be inspired by one. I was inspired to add balloons to a birthday card, since they also go up! (But they do eventually come down, unlike age!) The girl is from Tote-ally Tess, and the sentiment is from On Your Birthday. I chose bright colors - Poppy Parade and Peach Parfait patterned paper from the In Color Paper Pack, and Baja Breeze for the sponged cloud background and card base. Thanks for looking!

Bird in the Sunshine

Thursday means a Ways To Use It Challenge on Splitcoast, and today's challenge was Repetition, in honor of Groundhog Day (remember the movie starring Bill Murray?). We were to use any image, over and over and over...you get the idea! I chose one of the flower images from the Simply Soft hostess set, and used it at least 10 times to create the background on both the main image panel and on the card base (in Versamark). I colored the flowers & stems using my Blender Pen and Poppy Parade, Old Olive, and Sahara Sand Classic Stamp Pads. The frame is from Four Frames, stamped in Poppy Parade, and the sentiment is from Pursuit of Happiness. By the way, the addition of the punched bird is to cover up an in smudge. Mistake? No, happy accident! Thanks for looking!

Luck O' The Irish

This card is for today's sketch challenge on SCS. I used a heart image from Take It To Heart to create the "shamrock." Inside the card, I used the "L is for Luck" sentiment from Occasions Alphabet. I embellished the card with Hemp Twine and an Antique Brad. Colors used are Garden Green, Very Vanilly, and Soft Suede. Thanks for looking!

View of the inside of the card:

Inspired By Belleek Pottery

I made this card for the Technique Challenge on splitcoaststampers.com on Monday. The challenge was to make a card in a style inspired by Belleek Pottery in Ireland. The technique involves inking an embossing folder with a light, neutral-colored ink, then embossing with the Big Shot on either white or vanilla cardstock. Very simple, and the result is so beautiful & soft! I chose to use the Vintage Wallpaper folder, Crumb Cake ink and Very Vanilla cardstock. For the flower image, I stamped the tulip from Flores Suaves in Early Espresso ink, then watercolored with my Aquapainter. The frame is from Four Frames, and the sentiment is from Upsy Daisy. I also added a Filigree Designer Brad and 2 Rhinestones Basic Jewels to bling it up. TFL!

Peachy Gnome

I love this new set from the Spring Mini Catalog - Gnome Sweet Gnome!

After I stamped the gnome girl, I colored her with Watercolor Pencils and my Blender Pen. The patterned paper is Peach Parfait from the In Color Pack. I added a butterfly from Flight of the Butterfly. And, once again, I had to add flowers - this time I stamped the little flowers from Loads of Love on the bottom corner of the card. Everything in stamped in Chocolate Chip, and the card base in Peach Parfait. TFL!

Valentine Projects

Since we returned from Hawaii, I've been working on Valentine's Day projects. It seems I was inspired by all the tropical flowers, I've been adding flowers to everything!

The pink card features images from Take It To Heart from the new Spring Mini catalog. The sentiment is from Word Play from the big catalog. I made the frame using the new Framelits Labels Dies, also from the Spring Mini.

For the red card, I also used a heart image from Take It To Heart. I stamped the background with En Francais, and added an Antique Brad, along with Early Espresso satin ribbon and an Eyelet Punched strip. Directions for the rose are on splitcoaststampers.com here:

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/dimensionalflowers/

The box is a card keeper from the 2011 Holiday Mini. The roses on top are made the same way as on the red Valentine card. I spritzed them with Vanilla Smooch Spritz to give them some shimmer.

Thanks for looking!

Christmas Vacation!

My family and I were fortunate enough to be able to visit Hawaii over Christmas Vacation this year!

We enjoyed 10 days of sunshine, beautiful scenery, delicious food, and lots and lots of family together time!

But alas, our time in paradise had to come to an end, and we're back home in snowy Ohio!

Flores Suaves November Club Card #3

This is card #3 for my November Stamp Club meeting. We created the "postcard" by masking & stamping En Francais on the left side of the card, and the script stamp from Flores Suaves on the right, using Early Espresso ink. The "stamp" is from Pretty Postage, punched out with the Postage Stamp punch. The butterfly and bee images are also from Flores Suaves, and the background is the Sunflower stamp. The buttlerfly is embossed with black embossing powder, and all the images are colored with Stampin' Pastels.

Three Little Words Club Card #2

This is card #2 for my November Stamp Club meeting. We used Three Little Words stamp set, with Ornate Blossom stamped on the background. For the bird, we wheeled Baroque Border in Early Espresso onto Soft Suede cs, then punched it out with the Bird Builder punch. Finally, we accented the bird and the card with a few pearls for some bling! TFL!