Shamrocks galore!

There's no doubt...I LOVE St. Patty's day. Part of the reason is I LOVE Corned Beef and Cabbage - and that is the one day a year I can force my family to eat it! I also can claim some percentage of Irish blood (don't ask me to quantify it!) So of course I was thrilled with Jane suggested a Green challenge over on our I Dream of Stamping challenge blog for this week! That, and I had just gotten a new 4-Leaf Clover Girl from MFT's Pure Innocence line.

I used my wonderful Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety paper again to paper piece this little cutie, and for the background as well. I used some of SU!'s Not Quite Navy to layer everything, and the card base and shamrock are from PTI Spring Moss (as is the ribbon!) The layout was supposed to be this week's Mojo sketch, but it went off a little. Oh well!

I finished off the inside with similar papers and added the Go Green sentiment from SU! again, because I just LOVE it! Be sure to go check out the I Dream of Stamping blog to see Jane and Michelle's samples, and then make your own and join the fun!

The need for speed....

I love things fast paced. I walk fast, I work fast, and I like to stamp fast. So for the final Winter Card Olympics challenge over on the I Dream of Stamping blog, we're doing a timed challenge. Create a card in 10 minutes (or 15 if you're handicapped with a sleeping baby on one shoulder or similar situation!) It's really fun to see what you can get done in such a short period of time. I was surprised!For my card I used the new Good Neighbor DSP from the Stampin' Up! SAB catalog along with the Trendy Trees stamp set and some gorgeous satin ribbon. I wanted the trees to represent 3 of the 4 seasons, so the cameo coral is like spring blossoms, then the summer green, and lastly the autumn leaves. For the leaves, I inked them first with More Mustard, then tapped around with my Ruby Red marker for some variation. I also used some punches to make it fast, and the wonderful Sketch for You to Try from this week - still gotta go back and do last week's...hmm!We'd love for you to play along with all our winter olympics challenges, so go check them out! You could win some fun prizes...and everyone who enters a card for ALL 5 challenges is qualified to win the grand prize!! OOOOoooooh!!

Have a wonderful Tuesday everyone!

challenges galore!

I don't usually do this, but somehow this card just turned out to work for many challenges! I started it as my sample for the I Dream of Stamping blog's curling challenge (which starts Sunday morning so be sure to check it out!) and then decided to use Julie Masses' inspiration challenge from the Stamping Around blog. Of course, since I used one of my new Pure Innocence girls I had to paper piece her outfit, thus qualifying for Joanne's challenge here, and finally I used the latest CPS sketch #154! Whew!!To start off, I stamped this new little sweetie with her cute pigtails on a cream Perfect Panel. I then stamped her on 2 different dp's from MME's Be Loved paper and a second time on the perfect panel (to cut out her arms per Joanne's great new paper piecing tut!) Then, I colored everything (including shading on the dp) and cut it all out to piece it together. Lastly, I cut her out with my new deckle edge oval nestability die.I followed the CPS154 sketch, sponging distress ink and sewing on each of the different layers. I created the satin roses using SU! vanilla satin ribbon and following the instructions from Debbie Olson's recent blog post. They do get easier the more you make...and I discovered 12" was too long, so I ended up using only 8 or 9 per rose. After assembling everything it was still missing something, so I added that strip of lace over to the right side. That helped tremendously in my mind!I finished off the inside with a little more stitched on dp, the sentiment and the flower which the little girl is watering stamped inside (minus the little girl, can, and water!) I hope you've enjoyed this card as much as I did making. Be sure to check the details for the curling challenge on I Dream of Stamping on Sunday morning - I can't wait to see what you all come up with for this one!

Ice, Ice Baby

Sorry...I couldn't help myself. When Julia was little we taught her to say that because it was sooo dang cute! For today's challenge over on the I Dream of Stamping blog you need to have some ice and/or snow on your card - in whatever format you want! I've been trying to keep up with the olympics (only 2 days behind right now) and just watched Lindsey Vonn win gold, and Louie Vito miss out on bronze, so I'm seeing plenty of snow and ice!For today's card, I used a digital image I purchased from Heather Ellis, the illustrator of the adorable new Pure Innocence line of stamps Kim has over at My Favorite Things (all of which are currently in stock last I heard!) Since I obviously don't have enough of these cuties (I have all but 2 I believe!) I had to go in search of more and found Heather's etsy site with her digital images. As a general rule, I don't care for digital images because I don't have a printer that works with my computer and can only print from dh's laptop. So, when I print, I tend to print a lot at once!!!I did very little coloring on this little cutie, just her hair & skin, some shading on the tub, a little shading for the bubbles, and the heart. I then cut her out with my circle nesties and covered the whole bit with versamark ink. I embossed it with SU's iridescent ice ep, then set her aside (under something heavy so the piece wouldn't curl!) I wanted to use Mercy's tuesday sketch which I really liked, but I had to change it up a little to work with this round image. I didn't want to use squares, and when I punched some circles it looked off. Michelle was here and we finally agreed flowers were the way to go for those side elements. These (and the brads) are some from GinaK from 2 years ago. I'm really happy with the final result!!Oh...and did you notice the stitching on there? My husband finally had some time to take a look at my sewing machine last weekend, he cleaned it out and oiled it, and it works FABULOUSLY now! I'm so excited, you'll start seeing a lot more sewing on my cards, since my machine will be sitting on my desk from now on! WOOHOO! I added some more dp to the inside of the card (this is from the SU! Sweet Pea designer pack) and a sentiment from the Serentiy Now MFT mini set.

Now...go work on your Icy challenge card and link it up over on the I Dream of Stamping blog. you could win a great new stamp set!!

Warm up with some heat embossing!

Our 2nd challenge over at the I Dream Of Stamping Winter Card Olympics is Heat Embossing! Be sure to go check that out and enter to win a fun stamp set!!For my card, I used my SU! I {heart} Hearts set, stamped on white cardstock with versamark ink and then embossed with some Judikins psychadelic ep. Then, I brayered some Melon Mambo ink all over the hearts. I layered this on some black before adding it to my Melon Mambo card. I added the additional bit of black cardtock and the flower according to Kazan's sketch #46 from the 2 Sketches 4 You blog.I hope you're enjoying these fun challenges, and we'll be back with another challenge for you all on Friday!

I Dream of Stamping Color Challenge!

The first challenge for the I Dream of Stamping Winter Card Olympics challenges is a color challenge - to use either the olympic colors, or the colors from the flag of the team you are rooting for.

I decided to use the German flag colors, since they are who I root for when the US is not contending. The true flag colors are black, gold, and an orangey-red. I'm using Basic Black, Dusty Durango and Crushed Curry.I also am using the Taylored Expressions 100th sketch challenge sketch, along with some of her newest stamps, Fish in Love and the coordinating set Animal Love Sentiments. I got to use these sets for one of the make and takes and fell in love. I also used the Razzleberry lemonade dp from SU! along with some SU buttons.After coloring in my fish, I outlined both of them with Spica Glitter pens, then after stamping the sentimement, I cut it out with my circle nesties. Then, I added some crystal effects to the fish bowl to give it some shine and depth.

I hope you'll head over to the I Dream of Stamping blog and play along with us...we'll have another challenge posted over there on Tuesday evening! Happy President's day everyone!!

Introducing I Dream of Stamping

Good evening everyone. I want to introduce you all to a fun new endeavor cooked up by a couple of my good stamping buddies Michelle and Jane. We all wanted to do more stamping and blogging, and thought it would be great to challenge each other to get it going. So...as part of those challenges, we created a whole new blog to host (and post!) them. I Dream of Stamping! (the name came from the fact that Jane had recently been dreaming about stamping)

To kick off this fun new venture, we've decided to host the 2010 Winter Card Olympics. You can read all the details about this fun challenge over on the I Dream of Stamping blog...but here I have my first card for it...the relay of the torch (just in time for opening ceremonies!)I used the sketch from Jen del Muro's Sketch for you to Try, and my Lady Liberty Sofi from Paper Pretties to create this fun, patriotic card. This fabulous designer paper is from Creative Imaginations. It all came from one sheet...but has strips of different patterns - so fun! And I used my spica glitter pens on the flames to give it a little extra spark!Now, head on over to Michelle's blog as I pass the torch to her, and then be sure to come back to see our first challenge (with prizes!) on Sunday. We'll all post our challenge cards to our individual blogs, and you'll see all 3 of them on the I Dream of Stamping blog.

Happy Friday night!!