Hello, Friend!

Good morning! Today I have another card that combines two challenges. The first is Freshly Made Sketches #5. I really love the sketches their design team comes up with. So easy to take inspiration from and as it turns out, there are a ton of talented people who link up each week. I have found so many new blogs to read there. Anyway, on to the card.

I also used the second half of our Chopped Challenge this week, in which our mystery ingredients were color mist, and the XL fancy flower punch. I made my own color mist by placing 7 or 8 drops of refill ink into a tiny spritzer bottle of water. I have tried it with both water and rubbing alcohol and get different results. For this cleaner card, the water worked better. And can you spy the XL Fancy Flower punch? The scallop along the left side are petals from that punch cut off in twos and lined up underneath my designer series paper. I LOVE punches that can do double duty!

Thanks for stopping by and please let me know if you have any questions!

Stamps: With All My Heart, Posy Punch

Card Stock: Basic Gray, Whisper White, Cherry Cobbler

DSP: Subtles DSP Paper stack

Ink: Basic gray, Cherry Cobbler, Baja breeze refill

Punches: XL Fancy Flower, 1" circle, 1 1/4" circle

Other: Non-SU circle cutter (but should have used my circles die! Shoot!)

Chopped Challenge #5

Okay, so this card was supposed to be for two challenges. The first being the Sweet Sunday Sketch #138 and the second being our Chopped Challenge #5. Well, let's just say that the diagonal paper element of the SSS challenge really threw me for a loop and I'm not super happy with how it turned out. It was a learning experience though! I learned that it's not so easy to cut striped paper on the diagonal freehand. And I learned that there is a real science (well, math!) to cutting diagonally and math is NOT my strong point anymore! And yes, I AM in accounting! But accounting and math are really quite different. So I am really on the fence as to whether to post it to that challenge or not.

But I AM super happy with how I used our Chopped elements! For this challenge, the mystery ingredients were the round tab punch and dazzling diamonds. I used the round tab punch in a creative way to come up with the brackets around my birthday greeting. And I used dazzling diamonds to mimic crystal cake stands on the stamped image.

And now that I have the photo all good and blown up, I can tell that I really need to get a new blade for my trimmer! No, I am definitely not using this for Sweet Sunday. Maybe I can get another card done this week instead.

Thank you so much for taking time to stop by and as always, if you have a question or comment I'd love to hear from you!

Stamps: Birthday Bakery, Occasional Quotes

Card stock: Whisper White, Concord Crush, Melon Mambo

DSP: Cheerful Treat

Punches: Round tab, Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border

Other: Dazzling Diamonds

Chopped challenge #3

Hi there! Today's card is once again combining two challenges. The first is for the Just Us Girls Sketch challenge 104 that you can find HERE. Happy 2nd Anniversary to the ladies at JUGS! I have been reading their blog for about 6 months but this is my first time actually posting my challenge card.

This is also for my Chopped Challenge #3. I actually posted out of order when I posted yesterday for our Chopped Challenge #4. Oops! Oh well. :) The items in our mystery basket were: the scalloped trim border punch, the elegant bouquet embossing folder, the large tag punch and pearls. In addition to the actual items, we were to make a vintage card. I think everything worked really well together for this challenge!

Thanks for stopping by and, as always, leave me a comment if you have any questions!

Stamps: Vintage Vogue, Fall Foliage

Cardstock: Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, Very Vanilla

DSP: Newsprint (retired)

Ink: Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, Soft Suede

Punches: Large Tag, Scallop Trim Border, Scallop Edge Border

Other: elegant bouquet embossing folder, Very Vanilla seam binding, Old Olive 5/8" satin ribbon, adhesive backed pearls

Fall Thank-You

Happy Sunday!

I found a great new blog for challenges and so I thought I'd try it out this week. It is called Freshly Made Sketches and this week's challenge can be found HERE. I feel like this card is missing something but I can't quite put my finger on it. Any suggestions?

Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: Day of Gratitude

Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Old Olive, Very Vanilla

DSP: Spice Cake

Ink: versamark, Bravo Burgundy, Early Espresso, Old Olive, More Mustard

Other: Two Tags die, scallop circle punch, thread, corduroy brad

Just a Note

Hi there! Gosh, I look at this blog and have to wonder if anyone even tries to come here anymore. It has been a long time since I posted! I've still been making cards but I just haven't taken the time to photograph them before I send them off. I think this will change though because I have been trying to keep up with at least a few challenges so I'll get better about posting. Here's hoping!

This card combines two challenges. First, it is part of Card Sketch Patterns #135. I loved this because I challenged myself to make a different size card than I normally do.

The card is also for my Chopped Challenge this week. My good friend and I love the show Chopped on Food Network. The contestants are given a basket of mystery ingredients and have to come up with a dish based on those ingredients. So my friend and I do a Chopped challenge of our own. In our "basket" this week, we had to use: a square punch, the spiral border punch, staples and crystal effects. In addition, the card had to contain the colors pink and black. How did I do?

Leave me a note if you have any questions!

All stamps Stampin' Up!

Ooh, I should have waited to take a photo of this card until my lighting was better. But waiting on good lighting sometimes puts a crimp in my motivation so it didn't happen today. Today we'll all have to use our imaginations (and squinting just so) to see how it looks in real life. Actually, you don't have to squint at all to see that my stamping is crooked. Let that be my lesson to you today that you should always stamp your images first! Then if you mess up you can turn the paper over and do it again, or start fresh. Today, I stamped last and so everything else was already there and I decided that I didn't want to start completely over. But I'll take my own advice next time!


Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: Party Hearty

Cardstock: Marina Mist, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White

DSP: Sweet Pea (retired)

Ink: Chocolate Chip, Marina Mist

Punches: scallop edge border, 3/4" circle

Other: Marina Mist grosgrain ribbon, silver brads, paper piercing tool, stitching

Mixing Sets

Do you have a hard time combining sets? I do! I think it has more to do with how I store my stamps than anything else but combining two sets to make a card almost never occurs to me. Today I forced myself to do it though and I think it turned out well!

Can you see the detail in the flowers? I was able to get that texture simply by placing my punched piece on the foam that comes in the paper piercing set and pressing down into the flower with the end of a pen cap. I think it adds a little something to the flower. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: Season Of Friendship, Happy Moments (retired)

CS: Marina Mist, Whisper White, Rose Red, Pretty In Pink

Ink: Chocolate Chip, Marina Mist, Pear Pizazz

Punches: 1 3/4 x 7/8 oval, Flower Trio (retired)

Other: Pear Pizazz stitched poly ribbon, Basic Pearls