CASology and colourQ: Bloom with Colors

This is my second post today.

This week's challenge at CASology is "bloom".  Besides a flower, I definitely wanted to include one of my myriad of sentiments that include the word "bloom".  I also am in love with the colors at colourq as I have always loved Ruby Red - it's such a wonderfully warm and inviting color.  I thought it might help with my dislike of Calypso and...what do you know?...I like them together!!

The graphic for the colourq challenge is wonderfully bold - I love the different directions that these colors can take.

• Stamps: Verve Hope Blooms
• Paper: Stampin' Up Ruby Red CS and old dsp, Calypso Coral dsp, Certainly Celery CS, Basic Black CS
• Ink: Memento Black
• Accessories: My Favorite Things Flower Medley, Memory Box Butterfly Delights (it's a border die of tiny butterflies) and Tender Leaves, Divine Twine Black Licorice

Thank You Ever So Much with Hexagons

Everybody knows that I love challenges.  Virtually every card that I make starts with a challenge  - I need a starting point.  By taking one decision out of the equation - the sketch, the colors, the technique, my brain is freed up to be creative on the rest of the card.  I usually play one challenge on a card; maybe two.  But today I was looking at my Chronicle app (see iPod/Ipad app tab) which is my storage place for each day's challenges - and three of them called my name!!!

This card is the sketch from Nacho Average Challenge, the colors from colourq, and the hexagon challenge from CASology.

It's also one my rare cards that has a specific destination.  I have an incredibly gracious friend who regularly invites a group of friends over to her beautiful home to chat, drink coffee, knit - just be relaxed and happy.  As soon as I hit publish on this post, I am going to put a coffee cake in the oven, take a shower and head over to Carol's with my thank you card in hand.   Happy day!!

FYI - be sure to check out my new blog look created by the great Jackie Rockwell and debuted yesterday!!

• Stamps: Papertrey Ink Happy Hexagons, Simple Sentiments
• Paper: Stampin' Up Sage Shadow
• Ink: Stampin' Up Sage Shadow, So Saffron, Blush Blossom, Calypso Coral
• Accessories: Stampin' Up button, Calypso Coral twine, MFT Fishtail dies, Lifestyle Crafts hexagon die, misc pearls

RE-Inspired with Freebies

It is the second week of the BE-Inspired Challenge over at The Alley Way Stamps (TAWS) and it is a CUTE picture...

So I get to RE-inspired you to play along.  And as an added thrill today, the stamps that I have used on my card have just been announced on the TAWS blog as a freebie with $40 purchase through the month of December!

I love the colors and I was particularly drawn to the stockings - I liked the random splashes of color.


You need a close-up to see that the card really does sparkle!!

A big thank you to two challenges that helped me with this card...
retrosketches

colourq - Although I am very sad to announce that I am officially out of my first ever Stampin' Up color.  I have ink and paper back to Mint Melody and Mauve Mist (anybody remember those?)  But I pulled out my Glorious Green pad to make this - it was dry - so I rummaged through my ink refills and then rummaged again and again...it's gone.  I am officially out of Glorious Green.  There is nothing quite like Glorious Green - I used Garden Green on this card.

ColourQ and Birthdays!

A dear friend had a birthday yesterday.  The colors from colourq were absolutely perfect for her!!!

This was such a fun combination of warm and cool colors.  I also added some festive silver.  This was quite a stretch for me as silver didn't go with anything.  But I so liked the surprise of the Bermuda color - I decided to pair it with a silver surprise!!

The layout comes from cardabilities:

• Stamps: Avery Elle Framed Fonts
• Paper: Stampin' Up Cajun Craze, Concord Crush, More Mustard dsp, Silver Glimmer
• Ink: Stampin' Up Concord Crush
• Accessories: Spellbinders labels, Stampin' Up Cajun Craze button and Flower Brad, Pebbles Glitter Candy Dots, gems colored to match Concord, My Favorite Things Fishtails die

Thanks for the Turkey!

Well, it happened...I missed last week's CASology challenge - it was the first one that I missed since it started.  I blame a dead furnace and cold Colorado weather. (It's still dead and will be dead for awhile because I have an old house and the furnace room isn't up to code so getting a new furnace also involves permits and construction!!!)  Wonderful mother that I am, I left all my boys (including the husband) down here to deal with the cold house (we do have a fireplace and they used winter weight sleeping bags - they were fine!) and I ran away to our little condo in the mountains!!  It had heat, but it didn't have any cardmaking supplies.

I got back last night and decided that the first thing that I would play along with is CASology with a little colourQ and technostamper mixed in.

Also, this week's Simon Says Stamp Challenge is Thanksgiving/Thanks!

But now that I have this done, I don't think I will use it.  There is something a little bit wrong about using a cute turkey on a thank-you-for-Thanksgiving-dinner card!!??

• Stamps: Rosie's Roadshow Turkey, Stampin' Up Pretty Postage
• Paper: Stampin' Up Old Olive, Soft Suede and Tempting Turquoise CS, Cajun Craze dsp
• Ink: Memento brown and Copics
• Accessories: Stampin' Up Turquoise button (from an old collection), WPlus9 Chevron Impression plate, Spellbinders die, EK Success pennant punch

Never Give Up Hope

On the first Wednesday of every month, The Alley Way Stamps has a free digital stamp.  I am particularly in love with this month's - Never Give Up Hope...


Isn't that a wonderful butterfly?  It's fun, but meaningful.  The sentiment that I used came from the TAWS Christmas Magic set.
I used the colors from colourq which were also meant for October's Breast Cancer Awareness month.  (FYI - I tried easily 50 photos in different lights because in real life, the two darker ribbons are exactly the same color - but I simply don't have the photography skills to deal with the different colors reflecting from the different fabrics - sorry!)

I also wanted something a little frilly - that's not normally my style so I relied on a sketch from cardabilities.

• Stamps: The Alley Way Stamps digital freebie, sentiment from Christmas Magic
• Paper: Stampin' Up Basic Gray, Pink Pirouette
• Ink:  Stampin' Up Basic Gray, Copics
• Accessories: Martha Stewart Fine Crystal Glitter (on butterfly wings), misc black baker's twine, ribbon from Stampin' Up and other miscellaneous sources, Queen & Co Twinkle Goosebumps

A Season Full of Bountiful Blessings

This is my second post...it's just a short 

scroll down for embossing with CAS-ual Fridays.

I think that the colors at this week's colourQ challenge are about the strangest group of colors that I have ever seen.  Who puts Cameo with Burgundy or, even worse, Starfruit with Saffron?  Admittedly, the blouse in the photo is cute...but this is still a seriously odd combination.  (Sorry, Arielle!!!)

But somehow it still got my creative juices flowing.  I saw a beautiful sentiment in the burgundy, surrounded by simple flowers or silhouettes.  I checked out the sketch from splitcoaststampers and thought it could all work - as long as I kept a lot of white to offset the colors!!

I like it!  Thank you to colourQ for the challenge!!

• Stamps: Sweet 'n Sassy Blessings & Thanks, Nature Silhouettes
• Paper: Stampin' Up So Saffron, Bravo Burgundy, Cameo Coral
• Ink: Stampin' Up Bravo Burgundy (sentiment), Summer Starfruit and Cameo Coral (flowers), So Saffron (sponged on edges)
• Accessories: Stampin' Up scallop border punch, white taffeta

Cocoa Is the Best!!

It's my day to post over on the Sweet 'n Sassy blog and I was thrilled when I realized that I had a football image with Cocoa mouse.

Living in a household of men, my family is very aware of the fact that it is football season!!!

Besides watching a continual loop of ESPN Sports Center and multiple preseason games (Go Broncos!), my teenage son is having an interesting experience.  He has recently transferred to a small Christian high school.  My husband, who also attended a small Christian school, warned my 6'4", 200 pound son that he would get the attention of all of the coaches (even though his "sport" is actually band!)  We visited the school about a month ago and, as we were touring, a gentlemen at the other end of the hallway saw us and practically ran down the hall saying, "Are you a new student?  Do you play football??" And now that my son is actually enrolled there, the teacher in his Theology class asks him every single morning, "Are you sure you don't play football?"

So I created this card for my son.  When he is having a down day - I'll bring out the card.  Inside it says, "You are the best (but are you sure you don't play football!!)"  It will make him smile...

I impressed myself a little with the pennants (I'm easily impressed).  I tend to take stamps at face-value...a postage cancellation stamp is a postage cancellation stamp.  But...in this case, the curves on the postage cancellation stamp from Sweet 'n Sassy's Vintage Postcard became the folds on the pennants!!

I also brought out my favorite basic set - Grunge Borders - to do the diamonds on the green panel.  (Although since it actually is a background/border set, I wasn't particularly impressed with myself!)

My colors came from colourq:

My layout came from the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge:

• Stamps: Sweet 'n Sassy All Star Cocoa, Vintage Postcards, Grunge Borders, sentiment from Back to School Rhubarb
• Paper: Stampin' Up Crumb Cake, Basic Gray, Gumball Green, Bermuda Bay
• Ink: Colorbox Frost white, Memento black, Copics (see my sidebar for a downloadable Copic chart with matches to Stampin' Up colors!)
• Accessories: Cuttlebug Embossing, Papertrey pennant dies, Spellbinders circles, The Twinery Caribbean twine

Cloud9 Birthday Wishes

This is my second post today.  It's just a short

scroll down for some Halloween fun!

Cloud9 is a monthly challenge and blog hop using stamps from WPlus9...I love WPlus9 stamps.  They have a new release up today and I'm having a tough time narrowing it down to fit my budget!!

I got up early to make this card as the blog hop started at 8 a.m.  At 7:55 I was taking photos and getting read to edit.  The post came up at Cloud9 and lo and behold - one of the design team members used the same set of stamps and the same color challenge.  I'm feeling a little proud of the fact that I had the same idea as the wonderfully talented Christina!

Here's the sketch from Cloud9:

And here are the fun colors from colourQ

• Stamps: WPlus9 A Pocketful
• Paper: Stampin' Up Summer Starfruit, Gumball Green, Certainly Celery
• Ink: Stampin' Up Midnight Muse, Gumball Green, Summer Starfruit
• Accessories: WPlus 9 A Pocketful Dies

A Sketch and ColourQ

This is one of those rare cards that made itself.  I started with the colourQ challenge and assumed that I would make a Christmas card.  I saw the splitcoaststampers sketch challenge and knew that my new doily die would be perfect for the bigger circle.  As I was pawing through my stash for something Christmas, I saw the cross and realized that this could all come together for a rich, elegant and meaningful card - perfect for our church card racks!

(Did you notice that the watermark given to me by Sweet 'n Sassy uses the same cross that I used on the card!!??)

• Stamps: Sweet 'n Sassy Elegant Blessings and Our Refuge
• Paper: Stampin' Up black, white, Crumb Cake, Real Red, Pear Pizzazz
• Ink: black
• Accessories: Quickutz Dainty Doily die, misc ribbon and gems

Jumping on the Hexagon Trend!

There are cards all over blogland right now using hexagons - and I love them!  They look like a comfie quilt - yet most of what I am seeing is still very clean and simple.  Of course, I jumped right on that bandwagon and my hexagon dies arrived yesterday...



I went with this week's very cheerful colors from colourq.  Then, I needed a little help with the idea of a clean and simple quilt - so I went with this week's sketch from clean&simple.

• Stamps: Stampin' Up Perfectly Penned
• Paper: Stampin' Up Always Artichoke and Tangerine CS, Daffodil and Pear dsp
• Ink: Versamark
• Accessories: detail white embossing powder, Lifestyle Crafts Nesting Hexagon dies, Stampin' Up dotted embossing folder, misc twine

A Very Special Birthday!

I am currently part of an wonderful group of ladies - the Sweet 'n Sassy design team.  A group this wonderful must have an amazing leader - that would be Korin Sutherland - the owner of Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps.  It's Korin's birthday TOMORROW.  We can't celebrate tomorrow - because we already have plans to celebrate the April release (Yeah!! New Stamps!! And another blog hop!!)  Plus, tomorrow would be expected - so we are holding a surprise birthday blog hop TODAY!

You should have come from Makiko's blog.  If you started with me and you want to see more Sweet 'n Sassy birthday fun - head back to Taylor's blog to go all the way!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KORIN!!  It has truly been the highlight of my year getting to know you and all of the wonderful people with which you surround yourself!

I used the basic Sweet 'n Sassy set - Seeing Spots along with a huge variety of buttons, bling, ribbon and string!

Next on the hop is Mary Faus  - enjoy ALL the birthday fun!!

Taylor Usry 

Beate Johns

Bridget Finlay

Holly McMillen

Lydia Fiedler

Chrissy Dickinson

Dina Kowal

Leslie Hanna

Lisa Hjulberg

Kim Schofield

Jessica Fick

Julie Ranae

Monika Davis

Jessica Diedrich

Cathy McCauley

Makiko Jones

Kim Singdahlsen <--You Are Here

Mary Faus

Deb Felts

Lori Craig

Giovana Smith

Kim O'Connell

Wendy Jordan

Julie Smith

Michele Single

Jeanne Streiff

Lee Murphy

And feel free to leave Korin some early birthday love, either on her blog, her Facebook page, or the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Facebook page!

I did get some help on this card from the colourQ color challenge.  It used such sweet pastels - I had to put them together on a card!

Heaven Knows You're Special

I realized this morning that I have been very bad at sending cards to a very special family.  Amongst a lot of other stuff, the sweet little seven-year-old is going through chemo for the fourth time in her young life.  My card today is actually for her big sister - when I send cards to the family, I never want to forget her.

I find her very difficult to make cards for - she is only in 4th grade but has seen so much already.  Cutesy just doesn't seem right, yet she is still very young.  I had earmarked the colors at this week's colourQ challenge as being the perfect bright and cheerful colors for her.  I also stumbled on a Stampin' Up set that I had never used that had the perfect sentiment.  Then I pulled out some simple tulips to finish it off.

When I was trying to figure out what to do - I realized that I hadn't played along with the Sweet Sunday sketch challenge in a long time and it is one of my favorites!

• Stamps: Papertrey Ink Flower Fusion 11 (for the tulip) and various stems from other Flower Fusion sets, Stampin' Up Blessings from Heaven
• Paper: Stampin' Up Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight, Tempting Turquoise
• Ink:  Stampin' Up Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight, Tempting Turquoise, Certainly Celery
• Accessories: Stampin' Up Word Window Punch and Celery Grosgrain, Martha Stewart butterfly punch. gems colored with Copics

It's Here! It's Blog Hop Day!!

Welcome to the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps February New Release Blog Hop!  This month's release is so exciting  - it was even released a week early as a surprise! Get your warm beverage and tasty snack, and get ready for some amazing inspiration from the Design Divas!

I love this hop because I am surrounded by incredibly talented cardmakers and I love seeing what they have done (and I have the same stamps so I can CASE them all!!)

You probably came from Korin's blog but if you started with me, you should head back to the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Blog to start from the beginning.

I have two ENTIRELY different sets to show you today.  The first is charming little Cocoa popping out of an Easter egg...

This set is called Egg-Cited Cocoa.  I used Echo Park Dots & Stripes, also available in the store.  And the heart die is also from Sweet 'n Sassy - the Hearts and Stars Scallop Border.  (The layout is from a sketch found at Cardabilities.)

Then on an entirely different note...

It's the Rose Collage set and it is gorgeous.  There are 16 different sentiment to go inside the banner so it is completely flexible.  The two butterflies are on the main collage stamp - but there are also two separate stamps so it is easy to stamp and cut out.  (The colors are from colourQ.)

Next...for your hopping pleasure...is Giovana.  Have fun!

Be sure to make plans to join us for our new release party tonight; the fun takes place over in our member company forums on Splitcoaststampers.  We'll have great fellowship with crafty friends, challenges, and a prize drawing!  The excitement starts at 8:00 PM EST.

Now, take a look at what the other Design Divas have created to show off this amazing batch of February stamps:

Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Blog

Korin Sutherland

Kim Singdahlsen < - - You Are Here

Giovana Smith

Dina Kowal

Jessica Fick

Kim Schofield

Mary Faus

Monika Davis

Bridget Finlay

Holly McMillen

Cathy McCauley

Amber Hillman

Wendy Jordan (our February guest)

Taylor Usry

Don't forget, the entire February release is available in the store right now; you can order the stamps individually or at a discounted bundle price!  Head over to get yours today!


The challenges that I used are:

LIM Cut It Out with ColourQ

Since last Saturday, when Less Is More announced a "Cut It Out" challenge (using a hole or aperture in your card), I've known what I wanted to do - but I am only just getting around to it now!  In the meantime, the CAS-ual Friday Challenge that I wanted to pair it with - using ONLY black and white - has expired.  I'm not going to get into their gallery - but if you haven't peeked - it's a fascinating gallery to look at.

Our church card ministry is always in need of sympathy cards, so I found a simple silhouette bird and used a die cut that resembled a bird cage.

Since I didn't make the black and white card in time, I decided to try to give the same card some color.  This week's colourQ challenge has some of my favorites!   (I really did use Olive ink - but after a dozen photo attempts - you are still seeing an entirely different!!)

• Stamps: Stampabilities bird silhouette, Sweet 'n Sassy Peaceful Swans (sympathy sentiments), Verve  Small Phrases (I thought of you)
• Paper: white
• Ink: black, Stampin' Up More Mustard, Old Olive, Crumb Cake
• Accessories: twine, SU Button Bouquet button, gems colored with copics, Papertrey die