Peace on Earth (with Dimension!)

I was looking at all of the current challenges that I wanted to play this week while life was a little easier without running the kids to schools and practices, etc.  (Plus, my husband cooks Thanksgiving dinner so I am free and easy!!)  There are so many, I decided to combine three in this card!


I started with the technique challenge at Technique Tuesday: 3D Punched Elements.  They have a nice picture tutorial of how to put these together!  For my tree, I used two different blues and then covered every other panel with glitter - just trying to give the tree some shadow an dimension!  (If you ever have group cardmaking events with kids and teens - this is a great technique to use - check it out here!)
I was going to do a traditional green tree, but the Winter Blues challenge at CAS-ual Fridays called my name.  I'm glad it did, because the blues led me to the beautiful sentiment and the soft background paper.

In keeping it very clean and simple, I went with the current sketch at iSpy Sketches. 

• Stamps: Verve Star of Wonder
• Paper: Stampin' Up Silver Shimmer, Bashful Blue, Bliss Blue (retired), Going Gray (retired), Bo Bunny Powder Mountain
• Ink: Stampin' Up Brocade Blue (retired)
• Accessories: WPlus9 Pretty Patches Tree die, Bo Bunny Powder Mountain gems, Martha Stewart Crystal Fine Glitter (applied with spray adhesive)

TAWS New Release Blog Hop

It's one of the special days of the month...the new release blog hop for The Alley Way Stamps (TAWS)!!

I am definitely hopping today...


Check out that face.  He could be angry, or surprise or confused.  I'm not sure how I am going to use this - probably for some nasty "you're not really old" birthday card!!  The frog comes from a new set called Kid 'n Caboodle which is the same type of set as Priceless Joy.
Another new set this month is called Trees Company - trees and birds...could it get any better??  I used a few of the "pieces" to put together this little scene. 
The colors on both cards come from Papertrey Ink: Aqua Mist, Limeade Ice, Summer Sunrise and Kraft.
I used the third new set on Monday's sneak peek post - this set includes my favorite little turkey BIGGED!  I love him so much!!
Here's all the official details on this blog hop:

One person will win ALL 3 NEW SETS!! YEP!! So if you want that person to be you.. all you have to do is comment on the hop! 

Here are ways you can win.. You can pick and choose which ones you want to do.. but the more you comment, the more chances you have to win.. 

1-Comment on The Alley Way Stamps Blog

2-Comment on the DT girls blogs (below)

3-Post about it on facebook or your blog

4-Like us on Facebook

(leave a seperate comment for each that you do)

 You have until September 30th by 9:30 PM TAWS time to leave comments.

Here are the DT Blogs to visit

Alison
Annette
Arielle
Audrey
Danielle
Jessica
Kim <===You Are Here
Lyndal
Tracy

The layout on the frog card is the Fall to Layout from clean&simple stamping.

The layout on the bird card is from iSpy Sketches.

Have a great hop!!

You're the Best Hostess

I was chatting with a friend yesterday about how much I was NOT looking forward to the long weekend.  My 12-year old son is a highly active guy and most days you can find him outside throwing a lacrosse ball, or a baseball, or kicking a football, or skateboarding...  Unfortunately, he is temporarily on crutches due a possible stress fracture - so he is going slightly crazy which means he is driving the rest of us totally crazy.



So my wonderful friend said "come on over for a barbecue".  Do people really entertain that spontaneously?  It takes me a full week just to clean.  Of course, I don't do a lot of cleaning any other time.  I gave up years ago - small house, lots of hobbies and supplies, lots of sports and gear, lots of books, lots of pets - it's really not worth the effort to keep it much above the "safely inhabitable" level.

We're off in just a few hours to enjoy our barbecue and I definitely wanted to bring a thank you card!


I got a start from this week's sketch at iSpy Sketches:

• Stamps: Stampin' Up Perfectly Preserved, Friendly Phrases
• Paper: Stampin' Up Orchard Harvest, Cajun Craze, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White
• Ink: Stampin' Up More Mustard, Lucky Limeade, Chocolate Chip
• Accessories: Stampin' Up buttons, Perfectly Preserved Dies, Apothecary Accents die, Lucky Limeade ribbon, misc gems colored with Copics

Clown for a Birthday

This is my first official day as a design team member for The Alley Way Stamps and I get to share a sneak peek of the new stamps for August.  (If you pop over to their blog you get to see other sneak peeks, PLUS if you leave a comment you could win a free set!)

I chose to use the new set Admit One (with a little help from some others)



Isn't he just charming?
I also used a pattern stamp from a new set called Cover Up to do the arrow across the bottom.  Plus the sentiment was pieced together from a variety of sets: Priceless Joy, Chatterbox and Bite Size.
I got my ideas today from a number of challenge:  Stampin' Royalty asked us to use buttons, the colors came from CAS-ual Fridays (if they forgive me for the red nose), the sketch from iSpy Sketches and it is Anything Goes week at Simon Says Stamp

• Stamps: The Alley Way Stamps Admit One, Cover Up, Priceless Joy, Chatterbox and Bite Size
• Paper: Stampin' Up Midnight Muse dsp
• Ink: Stampin' Up Midnight Muse and Kiwi Kiss, Memento black and copics
• Accessories: Papertrey Ink Chartreuse and Hawaiian Shores buttons, unknown blue star button

I Spy CAS-ual Fridays: THANKS!

I had a wide open day yesterday...could I come up with a card?  Nope!!  Today is back-to-back busy, so I got up a little extra early to be able to play...I looked at today's challenges...saw two that I liked...and had a card right away.  I hope the rest of my day goes this easily!



My sketch came from I Spy Sketches:

And from CAS-ual Fridays - to use text:

CAS-ual Fridays this week is sponsored by Simon Says Stamp.  I went to their site, thinking I would look at past orders and tell you what on my card actually came from Simon Says, but I have just too darn many orders!!  It is very likely that much, if not all, of the product on the card came from Simon Says.  I have included links in my recipe!

Did you notice my new photo in my profile?  I point it out for two reasons.  First, to mention my charming(?) husband who decided that I needed a picture "in my natural habitat"!!!  Hmmm...  Second, I have to tell you about a very funny lady who on her blog, djkardkreations, said she popped over to my blog to copy my URL (although you'll have to read her post to see what she really called a "URL") and when she popped over I "threw her for a fruit-loop" with my new picture.  She had to "sit at the station for a second" to get back on her "Train of Thought"!!  Every post that Darnell gives me a chuckle!!

• Stamps: Hero Arts Dictionary Greetings
• Paper: Authentique Celebrate 6x6 pad with Stampin' Up Poppy Parade, Taken with Teal and Going Gray
• Ink: Stampin' Up Poppy Parade
• Accessories: Memory Box Thanks die (this is actually a pop-up die with the bottoms of the letters adhered - I just flipped them back out of the way and added bits of CS behind each letter), Cuttlebug Asterisks dies

Vintage Postcard

I have wanted to use the Vintage Postcard set from Sweet'n Sassy Stamps, but I am SO not a vintage/collage expert.  To make it work, I had to find a couple of challenges that I thought would work - the color challenge at Splitcoaststampers and the sketch at iSpy Sketches...

I love the Bible verse intertwined into this set - such a perfect greeting!!

The Vintage Postcard set includes everything except the stamped flowers.  There are lots of little elements so it's easy to put together in a collage fashion!

• Stamps: Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Vintage Postcard, Flowers in Bloom
• Paper: black, Stampin' Up Crumb Cake, Cajun Craze, Baja Breeze, Cherry Cobbler, Lucky Limeade
• Ink: black, Stampin' Up Cherry Cobbler
• Accessories: Stampin' Up flower punch, bird punch (for leaves), circle punch

Football & Cocoa for the Birthday Boy

Today's Friday Free For All challenge at Splitcoast Stampers was to create a birthday card for a young boy.  I don't actually need a birthday card for a young boy - but I did have a fun set on my desk from Sweet 'n Sassy Stampers called All-Star Cocoa.  (I had done a baseball card yesterday for the May new release blog hop.)

I pulled out some papers that I liked and then thought about pennants.  I turned to the various challenge blogs that I like on Fridays and found the perfect sketch on iSpy Sketches.

• Stamps: Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps All-Star Cocoa
• Paper: Stampin' Up Jersey Shore dsp, Brilliant Blue, Pumpkin, Olive and Bashful Blue CS
• Ink: Memento black, Copics
• Accessories: Sweet 'n Sassy grass die, square punch for pennant ends, misc brads

iSpy Graduation Cards

Now that I am through confirmation cards for the church, I am moving on to graduation cards for our graduating youth.  As usual, I didn't plan ahead - so I have a large number of cards to make in a very short period of time (translation: (1) nothing fancy or complex on the card and (2) components that can be parceled out to my 12-yr old, my 16-yr old and my 53-yr old...although I have a lot of bribing to do as they are still tired of cutting and gluing and addressing confirmation cards last week!)

I used this week's sketch from iSpy Sketches as I thought the various panels could be used with papers to add interest.

We had a phenomenal fund-raising concert at our church this weekend.  (I had a flyer a few days ago on this blog).  It was for an amazing family whose very young daughter is going through her fourth round of chemotherapy.  The bell choir was one of eight groups that performed.  We decided that, even though we are mainly a group of middle-aged Lutheran ladies (and a few Methodist men pinch-hitting on the giant bells) we were doing....LADY GAGA...to appeal to the sweet, but very sick, young lady.

{My husband just wandered over, read over my shoulder, and said "Ha!  Middle-age??!!  Only if you live to be a hundred!"}

I'm in the brightly-colored boa under "Christ is Risen"??!!  Check out the director...she's got moves!!  Then check out the gentlemen whose head you see right in front of her that never, ever moves...that's her husband!  

I posted this on Facebook and a wonderful (but potentially former) friend commented "So that's where the missing communion wine went!"

I hope we made you smile!
THE CARD DEETS:

• Stamps: Our Daily Bread As You Graduate
• Paper: dsp is from Flair Designs (I've had it forEVer) and CS to match is Stampin' Up Creamy Caramel and Peach Parfair, Papertrey Winter Wisteria
• Ink: Stampin' Up Creamy Caramel and Versamark
• Accessories: Seafoam White embossing powder, Cuttlebug border embossing folder, EK Success postage border punch

I Spy Birthday Wishes

This is my second post today.  If you are looking for the

Splitcoast Color Challenge...it's just a short scroll down!

I love this week's sketch at iSpy Sketches!  It allowed me to add some very bright colors - while still staying clean and fresh!

• Stamps: Papertrey Ink Wishing You
• Paper: Stampin' Up Melon Mambo CS and dsp, Lucky Limeade dsp
• Ink: Stampin' Up Melon Mambo and Lucky Limeade
• Accessories: Papertrey Ink Chartreuse button, Cuttlebug embossing folder, The Twinery Pink Sorbet, misc gem

I Spy CAS-ual Fridays! Take 2

Those of you who read in Google Reader or via e-mail probably just got three copies of this and I truly apologize!!  Hopefully I have everything fixed now!

Don't you just love it when a couple of challenges work perfectly together??

This week's CAS-ual Friday challenge is to create a party card with ribbons.  Then I saw this week's sketch from iSpy Sketches.  It has ribbons!!!

Here's the card...

Check out the ribbons on the iSpy Sketch!

Before I get to the recipe - I have a very important detail....

The Copic Marker Matches documents found

on my side bar have been revised!!

The majority of the changes relate to the 2012 Copic new marker release and to new Papertrey colors.  Here are the specific changes in case you simply want to note them on your current document:

Copic Matches for Papertrey Ink

1. Added Canyon Clay, a new PTI color. Papertrey selected E97, E99 and E19.  I prefer the new 2012 color, YR27
2. Revised Fine Linen single match to be the new 2012 color, E84

Copic Matches for Stampin' Up

1. Revised Tempting Turquoise to the new 2012 color, BG57
2. Revised Certainly Celery to the new 2012 color, G43
3. Added Going Gray to the retired list, W4
4. Added Rose Romance to the retired list, R85

Back to the party ribbon card:

• Stamps: Papertrey Ink Tag Its
• Paper: Papertrey Ink Dark Chocolate, white
• Ink: Papertrey Ink Dark Chocolate, Canyon Clay, Harvest Gold, Aqua Mist
• Accessories: Papertrey ribbon in Dark Chocolate, Canyon Clay and Harvest Gold, misc ribbon to match Aqua Mist, Stampin' Up Pool Party twine, Stampin' Up Scalloped Border punch, Cuttlebug embossing folder, gems and Copics to color them to match

I Spy PTI and Pinterest!

Pin It

This is my second post today -

it's just a short scroll down for

Freshly Made Sketches!

A new sketch challenge - iSpy Challenges.

A big prize package - Papertrey Ink's 5th Anniversary.

And a new addiction for me - Pinterest - more on this later.

This week is the FIRST sketch from iSpy Sketches.  Sketch challenges are my favorite so I had to give this one a try.  Plus, when I decided to do a baby card - those three little bows across the bottom were a perfect fit!

This month is full of festivities for Papertrey Ink's fifth anniversary with HUGE prize packages.  Today they are focused on colors and the prize includes all their buttons, all their felt, all their ribbons...oh my gosh!!  Each of their designers gave their favorite color combos and I picked Erin's as it was a very different combo than I would normally use for a baby card!

Let me give you the facts of the card, then I am going to RAVE about Pinterest!

• Stamps: Papertrey Ink Hanging Out, Little Bitty Birds, Tiny Tags II (sentiment)
• Paper: Papertrey Ink Simply Chartreuse, Pure Poppy, Summer Sunrise Bitty Box Basics
• Ink: Papertrey Ink Aqua Mist and Fresh Snow
• Accessories: Papertrey Ink felt in Summer Sunrise and Pure Poppy, Papertrey dies: border die, bird die, hanging out die, Cuttlebug embossing folder, misc ribbon to match Summer Sunrise.

Now...on to my new addition...Pinterest.

I finally took the time to figure out what Pinterest was and I am now TOTALLY addicted.  I'm sure it is different things to different people - but what it is to me is a place to store all the techniques, templates, card folds, coloring ideas, etc. etc. that I find online.  That's really all it is - a place to store info that you find online with a focus on the picture.

So, I have been working my way through my hundreds of bookmarks for card ideas and have transferred about a hundred to Pinterest (with 100+ to go).  If you click on the Pinterest button on my sidebar, you can see what I have there so far.  I have a section for amazing effects with ink, for templates, for fancy folds, for dimensional projects, etc.  Then...if you like what you see, you can click on the link and you go right to the website to get the instructions!!  How cool is that!!!

My main focus is on the cards that require a tutorial or an extensive explanation - I store all the other cards that I love and find inspirational on my iPad.  Having said that, I have pinned a few cards to My Favorites - those are just basic cards that I love.  This section will grow but please realize, particularly if you know that I follow you, that I am not going to put many basic cards there as I have other places to store those.

Besides my stuff, there is a very active cardmaking community on Pinterest, and you will likely very quickly want to Re-Pin ideas onto your own board.  That just means you love the idea and want to keep under your own section so you can find it later.  Signing up for Pinterest is invite only - but just let me know and I will invite you.

If you are already a Pinterest user - I have tried to make life easier - and you will notice a Pin It button on my posts.  I've been "user" for a few weeks now, but you should have seen my happy dance yesterday when I suddenly realized others have pinned my cards.  I felt like I was having my 15 minutes of fame!!

Try it out...have fun...and I do hope you enjoy what I have pinned so far and will come back for more!