Just Rite Challenge #066

I have been anxious to get out some of my
Just Rite stamps

and get them all inky!

This week's challenge was just the right motivation!

A close-up of the gorgeous Just Rite stamp from Shabby Chic Labels Four.

This is being entered in the sketch challenge at

Just Rite Inspiration.

I ((heart)) SPRING!

This photo has been put away for more than 2 years now, waiting for that perfect layout. My grandson absolutely LOVES the outdoors, always has.  From the time he could crawl, he would sit in the grass and feel the textures and taste the sweet green "whatever that stuff was""...haha!  He is still much happier when running and playing outside!  At 6, he even enjoys reading his chapter books to me outdoors, sitting in the sun.

Here is the layout I made using only

Die Cuts With A View papers from the "Green Stack"

and the sketch this month over at DYSU.

Here is my layout with the sketch merely flipped on it's side:

I borrowed the little bird image from the paper pattern, and made a large six inch cutout from the stack.   And the muted colors make for the perfect butterflies and flag tags for a little boy page.  The backgound is a woodgrain from that same stack!  Terrific, isn't it?  I've hidden my journaling behind the photo to keep the layout simple and sweet.

(Sorry that you can see my drive peeking out from behind the page, but with the Arizona sun out so bright today, I couldn't resist taking this photo outdoors, too!  I guess the love of the outdoors runs in the family!

This layout is being entered in the challenge at DCWV Diary.

DYSU Challenge #59- LAYERS!

For this week we have three great sponsors:


Winner's Choice of 2 Digital Stamps

$10 Gift Certificate

$20 Gift Certificate

Now we're talkin'!
I love working with layers!

I've have just recently gotten comfortable with piling it on, and I love the styles of the famous cardmakers who just load it up!

And you might note that many of the design team members have two projects to showcase this week! Whee!  One of those is ME!

One of the images I received to work with was from
Little Miss Muffet
 "Saffron"
  Isn't she cute?

I paper pieced her coat, scarf, and hat.  I then added some Stampendous Shabby White embossing powder, and used a tiny, tiny ruffle peeking out from under her coat!
As troublesome as making a step card can be, I think they really make a card stand out!

For anyone who's curious, I simply finished the inside with a sentiment and strip of matching papers.

I also entered this card in the challenge at Little Miss Muffet Stamps!


My second card was with a
Tickled Pink image,
"Stefan",
or as he has been nicknamed here at my house,
"the little surfer dude".

Yes, you're seeing more of the Stampendous chunky embossing powders and crushed glass.  I am soooo addicted to that stuff!  Doesn't it make some amazing sand, though?

And a close up of the image...  Note that the sunglasses have Glossy Accents on the lenses.  Also, I have to chuckle every time I see that tiny little band-aid on his leg!
Yep, part of the image!  Cute, huh?

The brown satin ribbon was a great addition to the popped-up 3-D flip-flops, and his paper pieced surf board would be the envy of any surfer!  Hang 10, Dude!

Thanks for looking, and please, leave a comment and become a follower!
I'd love to know you were here!

Now, GO and check out the rest of the team's projects!
CUTE!!!

This card is also entered at:
Stampendous Impressions (Texture)

Stampendous Glitter and Shine!

I have a friend with a birthday coming up and she is, let's just say, a bit sensitive about her age.  I found this quote and thought of her immediately.  And what better way to frame such a perfect quote?  An embossed Stampendous frame with bits of glitter and shine, of course!

This month's challenge at Stampendous is to add TEXTURE.  Well, this card has a touch of every type of texture I could think of! 

The paper is from My Mind's Eye, Lush collection, the gorgeous flocked black stripe.

It gives the card such a rich, elegant feel. The sentiment is Fiskars.

 I stamped the Jumbo Cameo Frame onto gold Bazzill cardstock and embossed it with the Dark Bark embossing powder. 

The touches of blue, pink, and green were done with the embossing glitters.

IRL you can still see the centers of the small flowers that encircle the frame.

The really fun part was sandwiching the stamped sentiment between the card base and the striped paper. 

I used fine cream linen to stamp the sentiment, trimmed,

and then stapled it directly onto a tablet back.

This provided the stablility I needed to then attach

it to the card base with pop dots.

The front of the card (with the circle cut out) was then glued to the front of the sentiment. 

The black brads were the perfect answer to making sure it was good and secure!

And I think they also add a touch more vintage to the project!

This is possibly the HEAVIEST card I have ever made.

Thank goodness it will be hand delivered!

Skipping Stones Design Sketch Challenge!

Skipping Stones Design has a great sketch this week!

Here's my take on it:

All the stamping was done with elements from 

Skipping Stones'  "Everyday Blessings" stamp set.

The die cut circle behind the bird (not the white paper doily) was done by repeatedly stamping and heat embossing the wreath pattern in the stamp set,

and then cutting it out with the

Spellbinders "Blossom" Nestie.

Then I cut another just one size smaller inside the first.

That provided me with the scallop circle that I threaded the ribbon through. Does that make sense?  LOL!

If that wasn't confusing enough, I also cut a section of the heat embossed wreath to make a little popped out "nest" for the bird.

This is also the first time I have stamped a

sentiment on ribbon!

Wow, that Staz-On truly works wonderfully for that!

The background paper is Prima. 

They make some of the most gorgeous, romantic stacks!

The embossing powder is Stampendous Extra Fine Bark and is my new favorite embossing powder! 

Thanks, Jennifer, for enabling my addiction once again! LOL!

Hope you enjoyed this lengthy, however somewhat entertaining, post!

Please leave a comment so I know I'm not out here alone!

Papertrey - Butterflies and Leaves!

Papertrey Ink is celebrating their 5th Anniversary and, besides gaving some great releases, they have their usual terrific challenges! Well, this one co-ordinates with the release of a new set of butterflies and leaf stamps!  I really could use some fantastic new stamps!  And BUTTERFLIES take top priority on many of my cards!

I love the way the butterflies look as though they are floating across the card!

And I would love to have some new leaf stamps and dies!

The adorable little cloud cut-outs are the cloud dies from Papertrey, as is the sentiment.

Thanks for looking ! 

Flourish Timeless Tuesday challenge!

This week the challenge at Flourishes was to use an image with, or having to do with,

BIRDS!

Just the reason I needed to pull out my

Flourishes "Snow Wonderful" stamp set and matching

Classic Keyhole Spellbinder Die!

This image is so pretty with the glitter and embossing powders to highlight the adorable little birds and pine needles!

Aren't they just too sweet!

Supplies:
Paper; Prima, Madeline Mat Stack
Stamp; Flourishes, "Snow Wonderful"
Die; Spellbinders, Classic Keyhole and Picot Edge Circles
Embossing glitters; Stampendous
Ribbon
Flower; Prima
Scallop Scissors; Fiskars

Entered into the monthly challenge at Stampendous (Texture! I used 3 different Frantage embossing glitters and powders!)

Cat's Pajama's Valentine Blog Hop!

Join the fun as you go from blog to blog at "Dancing in Pajamas" to see all the cute, funny, and romantic Valentine's cards!  There will be adorable images and great ideas and techniques contributed!

So, here's my little card!  I love the little Cat's PJ's penquins and thought this image would be so cute altered to be for my little Valentine, rather than a birthday!

I used the old classic technique of accordian folding and cutting my little row of hearts! I used to love making dolls, hearts, and about any other shape imaginable back in grade school! (many, many, many years ago!)

I think it's hilarious that you can find these little guys getting into just about every situation and every holiday party you can think of!  This stamp is probably used more for birthdays, but I chose to add the heart candle and make it for a Valentine's Day party!  Nothing says "I love you" better than a trio of happy, silly penquins!

Also, I used the Shabby Pink Chunky Embossing Powder from Stampendous! I love this stuff for all sorts of applications! You'll be seeing a lot of it on my projects from here on out! It comes in many colors! No, I don't work for Stampendous, just love their glitters, powders, and crushed glasses!

Now, get outta here and enjoy the rest of the Hop!

Entered in challenge at Divas by Design  (LOVE)

Flashback Friday 20.0! Black and White Cards!

They are celebrating big time over at

Flashback Friday Challenge!

The prizes are big and the fun is huge!  This week, the challenge is to find and enter your first black and white card! WOW, I realized halfway through my old posts that I didn't get up the nerve to make and post a card that was primarily all black and white until late 2010! 

This one I made for a male freind who's birthday is September 18th!

You can bet I will never miss that birthday again!

I still have to say that I like the simple monochrome colors. (or lack thereof)

Do yourself a favor and checkout the challenge!

I have yet to win anything, but it's just too much fun!

It is so eye-opening to go through your old projects and see again what you were doing then verses what you are doing now! 

Some cards, I just shake my head; others like this one, I still like.



DYSU Challenge # 58 - Love is in the air!

It's February!

For this week we have two great sponsors:

1 year PDF subscription

Winner's Choice of 3 Digital Stamps

This week I had the opportunity to work with
this adorable little
"BIRDIE BROWN" image!

"Girl with a Rose"

I used the sketch over at Craft's Meow Stamps. 
They have such wonderful card sketches there!

This little gal was so much fun to paper piece, which has become my second favorite image treatment 
(second to coloring with my Copics,of course!)
The chipboard heart was inked red and heat embossed with clear powder three times to get that thick, rich color.

I was intimidated by the flower, so I simply glued on a Prima bloom that I had in my stash, and glittered it. 
It really added some great texture to the card and made it extra-cute!

This one is going to the Cancer Treatment Center, for sure!

Check out the rest of the Design Teams projects
at Do You Stack Up!
They are terrific!

And because of the special holiday nature of my card,
it was entered into the challenges at:
The Craft's Meow (Sketch)
Simon Says Stamp (Love and Prima product)
C.R.A.F.T Challenge (Valentine)
Delightful Challenges (Love)
Sarah Hurley Challenge (Love is all Around)
Divas by Design (Love)
Sentimental Sundays (Love)
Cupcake Craft Challenge (Red)

Wanna win some goodies?

My fellow "Do You Stack Up" Design Team member, Naomi, is celebrating her One Year Blogoversary and is giving away a fantasic slew of goodies! Did I say SLEW? Yep, a whole slew of wonderful scrap goods!

Check out her blog at Paper Bag Princess and sign up to be in the running! 

And look at her wonderful past projects while you're there!

Good luck everyone!

DYSU Challenge 57 - You name it!

For this week we have three
great sponsors:

Crafty  Individuals

 Stamp Fairy

Stamp &Create

Stamp and Create is an
online store based in the USA with worldwide shipping. We carry many stamp
designs including Magnolia, Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps, The Greeting Farm, Wags 'n
Whiskers Rubber Stamps, Whiff of Joy, CC Designs, Whimsy Stamps, and more. We
have a Product Spotlight sale each week with one select stamp company or
category are on sale up to 25% off. We also have a Monthly Challenge and Weekly
Candy on our blog.

Yep, this week the challenge at

DO YOU STACK UP

is ANYTHING GOES!

Father's Day will sneak up on me before I know it,

so I decided to get my Dad's card done now!

The photo was cut from DCWV paper and looks soooo much like me when I was young!

Dad loves the vintage cars and all things old-timey!

This Crafty Individuals stamp was perfect!

I paired it up with the papers from DCWV, "Vintage Stack" and "Tattered Time Matstack" and some die-cut gears and sprockets from Tim Holtz!

It's hard to tell, but the black trim piece is actually a metal corner reinforcer from an old office supply box! I got my hands on several and tore them down and flattened them to make these accents.

The book plate is JoAnn's Essentials.

With the challenge being "Anything Goes" , there will be no shortage of entries!  The DT will be busy this week! 
Go get your card finished and enter now at DYSU!

This card was IDEAL for the challenge at:
 Cupcake Craft Challenges (Recycled item, the metal trim, of course!)
Colour Create Challenge (Browns and Creams)

Happy Birthday, Cowboy!

Used the sketch at Waltzingmouse Sketch Challenge to make this birthday card for a cowboy friend.

This Vintage Label 18 stamp looks so great when heat embossed that I grab it every time I need a masculine western card!

I stamped extra ink onto every star to make them look aged and dry embossed the bottom to give it some texture similiar to jeans.

 (I don't have a folder that actually looks like denim!) 

This "belt buckle" has been a hit every time I've used it!

I will also enter this in the challenges at:

One Stop Craft Challenge (Stitching, Real or Faux, I used both)

Sentimental Sundaes (Dry Embossing)

Party Time Tuesday (Anything Goes)

Cupcake Craft Challenges (Recycled, the buttons were on an actual old shirt!)

Congratulations, Hayden! Way to go!

To see my

Do You Stack Up

post,

please

scroll

    down....



 This is my second post for today:

My grandson who is only 6 and in the first grade, received extremely high scores on his mid-year reading evaluation!  I'm not surprised that he is reading above grade level, but the scores were WAAAY up there!  He has been reading since he was 4, and there aren't too many books in my house that he can't pick up and read every word!  I am so very pround of him.  So, because he will be spending the next few days with us, we plan to reward him for his work.  Taking him to his choice restaurant for dinner,  rodeo on Saturday, and then his pick of movies from Blockbuster...  whee!

A peek into my private life...

Hayden playing soccer this past Fall.

I love October Afternoon's school themed papers! They aren't too babyish for the kids as they get older. And I am always up for some vintage!

The sentiment is from Stampendous, and the "brads" are simply gold office thumbtacks that I made rustic with StazOn and cut off the points then adhered them with Pop Dots!

I think the ribbon will get the message across that I think he is

Number One in my book!

 When it came time to make this card, I needed some inspiration. I found the best sketch at Skipping Stones Design, but had no stamps from them that would even come near what I wanted to express for a child. So, today I am fondly using their sketch and entering this in their challenge!  This experience tells me that I need to expand my SSD stamps past "girly" images!  (which I love, by the way!)

  And of course, I had to flip it!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day!

Jan