Hello Little One

My sister-in-law's best friend just had her second child, and being as she's practically family I wanted to send along a card.

This week's Lili of the Valley Challenge is New Beginnings and I just happen to have a new Baby stamp from LOTV! I used the lovely color combo #118 at ColourQ and the fab sketch #33 from Deconstructing Jen.

The Lili of the Valley Thursday Challenge recently changed management, and I'm so glad that it's still up & running as Lili's Little Fairies!

Anything Goes at Dude Time Doodles

This week at the Dude Time Doodles Challenge Blog, Anything Goes! 

Friday, January 6 is Epiphany/Three Kings Day in Christian tradition, so I decided to make a card for my parents featuring modern versions of the Magi -- I know it will make them laugh. I decided to do very little research, and was able to incorporate frankincense, myrrh, and gold into the image!

Although I always liked putting my shoes out, I wasn't always excited about the annual Three Kings Day parade, which largely featured costumed people on floats hurling candy into crowds of children. I was beaned right between the eyes by a particularly enthusiastic King when I was 4 or so, and it taught me a valuable lesson, probably. So I was excited to find this candy-themed paper in my stash, as it will really make my folks smile, and also makes it qualify for the Sports Team Colors challenge at Use It Tuesdays! For the Team colors, I went with family favorites: left to right: Green Bay Packers, Baltimore Ravens, Arizona State University.

I used a green glitter pen to fill in the highlights on the candy pieces, and added one to the back:

Be sure to follow the few simple rules listed over at Dude Time Doodles and link your creation with Mr. Linky by January 10th for your chance to win a Dude Time image of your choice.

Above the Weather

I have many new goodies from my trip at the holidays, including lots of ribbons, some glassine paper, and a pretty set of cardinal stamps. I was able to use them all for this relatively simple card inspired by the following challenges:

Fetch-a-Sketch #14

The Shabby Tea Room Challenge #95: Time Flies + Photo Inspiration + Something with Wings

Thanks everyone! Have a great day. And don't forget the Anything Goes challenge at Pile It On, and well as the new challenge at Dude Time Doodles (to be posted at 8AM).

I made the flowers by cutting pieces out of glassine paper on my Cricut from the Walk in the Garden set. I scrunched up the paper, stacked the pieces & secured them with a brad & glue. Then I sprayed them with Tattered Angels glimmer mists: Sunshine Yellow and Jack O'Lantern. I stamped a Stampin' UP sentiment on the inside:

Kind Thanks

While visiting Arizona, Mom & I spent a lot of time at the local craft store Crop Girls, truly a wonderland for those of us who craft. We went in a few days just to crop & hang out, and also took a couple of classes. I wanted to send them a thank-you, so I made this card using a lot of products they introduced me to!

I was inspired by the following challenges:

• Card Patterns Sketch #146
  The sketch really brought my idea together, especially the little embellishments on the right-hand side: I used tiny, vintage-y paperclips from 7Gypsies.
• Craft Your Passion Challenge #91: Anything Goes + Distressing
  All the pieces, thanks to Tim Holtz products, are ink-distressed with Antique Linen and aged with a paper distresser.
  
• Simon Says Stamp and Show: Something Old ... Something New
  The teensy paperclips, enamel & glitter (see explanation below), and the rose-and-netting ribbon are new from Crop Girls too, but the large rose is from a ribbon sent to me from the awesome Linda for the Thanksgiving Postcard swap at City Crafter. Mom already owned this adorable camel stamp, but I liked it so much that she bought me my own set! Thanks Mom! I stamped it with my new brown Memento ink and colored it with colored pencils. The pencils, paper ribbon, and 2 of the brown papers are newly in my possession but are literary old, in that they went through many hands before ending up the Church rummage sale where I found them! The other two brown papers have been in my stash for at least two years.

I used a technique we learned in a class at Crop Girls taught by Jennifer Dove: Fran•táge. Fran•táge was invented by Stampendous designer Fran Seiford, and it's a mix of montage, collage and total awesomeness. Jennifer showed us how to layer enamel and mica onto a card and melt it from below with your heat tool. If you have an opportunity to take class in this, do it! It's so much fun. I wanted all the products (the aged blue is wonderful!), but I bought the Aged Copper enamel (copper with a touch a green) and Shaved Ice mica/glitter.

Stamps: BaZooples #4 set from Inky Antics, sentiment from Stampin' UP!

Thank you for visiting,

A Banner New Year

I had a great time visiting my parents in Arizona over the winter holidays, and wanted to make them a special thank-you card. What better inspiration than the very first Stamping With Sami (SWS) Challenge from SP & Company Stamps! I used their Pretty Pendants & the matching SVG files to create the banner for this tri-fold card.

I was really drawn to this week's Sketch Challenge at Simply Stamping, and I can think you can tell I had great fun with it! Other than the Pendants and the backing papers, all DPs & stamps are Stampin' UP!

Inspiration/Challenges:

Stamping With Sami (SWS) Challenge #1: Stamp Something! / Use your SP and Company Stamps

Simply Stamping Challenge #40: Sketch

Stamps: Pretty Pendants & matching SVG files by SP & Company, Stampin' UP!

Paper: Stampin' UP!, Recollections, Paper & More

Tools: Zip Dry glue, Versamark & Memento inks, Marvy heat tool, stamp block, Cricut & SCAL, hole punch, Crop-O-Dile II, Sew Easy straight-stitch tool & piercing mat

Embellishments: Recollections embossing powders & pop-tape, stash eyelets, baker's twine from Crop Girls, Copic markers, Crayola colored pencils, ribbon from Christmas present packaging(!)


Update: Wow, this card made the Top 3 for the Simply Stamping Challenge #40! Thank you!