Warm Wishes

I was inspired by the FRIGID temperatures today to create this little CAS card.  It's a great day to stay inside, do some stamping, and have a hot cuppa. :)

I love this cute little mug from Paper Smooches' "Hot Concoctions" stamp set.  I also love this new snowflake embossing folder that I just picked up from Darice.  What a bargain-only $2.99 at A.C. Moore!  I can see myself using this on lots of winter cards.

I am also entering this card in the current Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge: Anything Goes.  Just click on the image below to go right to the current challenge!  Thanks for visiting my blog!

I Love You...Like a Love Song, Baby

Oh, how I have missed scrapping and blogging!  I've made a few projects over my little Christmas break.  Some of them I can share now-others I can't share until later. :)

My first card today is a CAS card that I made for the recent Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge.  I missed the deadline to post, however, and was a bit grumpy about that. :(  This morning, though, I saw that the latest Sparks Challenge was "Anything Goes."  Woo-hoo!  Now I can still enter this card!

This super-cute jukebox is from the "Perpetual Bliss" stamp set.  I paper-pieced it using some new papers from Basic Grey's "Fiction" paper pad.  It's hard to see the embossed sentiment on the left of the card in this photo, so here's a detail photo:

See the "love you" sentiment?  The top two are more subtle, but the bottom "love You" is a deeper emboss.  

This is one of my entries for the current Paper Smooches Sparks challenge: Anything Goes.  Just click on the image below to go right to this challenge!

Thanks for popping by-come back later-I have more projects to share! :)

Thanks for the Lift

***Please click HERE for my Lily Pad Cards Blog Hop Post!***

One more quick share tonight-using more cute Paper Smooches stamps.  This is my second card for the Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge:

Super CAS! :)

Thanks for looking!

Some Spring Cards...

I got to play a little bit today with some new stamps and my March Counterfeit Kit.  I struggled a bit with these colors, and I'm not quite sure that I was successful.  Getting inky made me happy, though!  Here are the 4 cards that I made today-but I still have a ton of paper in my kit that I want to use up!  I see a few more blue and yellow cards being created before the weekend is over. :)

This card uses some older stamp images from Hero Arts and Art Impressions.  My wonderful sister-in-law, Patti (the one who got me hooked on stamping a few years ago), recently passed all of her stamping supplies along to a few lucky recipients.  This is a thank you that I made for her using some of those stamps. 

I am in love with this little bunny stamp from Unity and Jillibean Soup's "Chicken Dumpling".  Isn't he sweet?  This is a super-simple CAS card that used just a few scraps of patterned paper from my kit.

I'm not quite sure about this card.  I think it needs a "pop" of color somewhere.  What do you think?  I think it just may be a bit too much blue for me.  I love the white lace over the kraft, however.  To make the kraft border, I traced a blue die cut border from my kit onto kraft, trimmed it with scissors, then used a brass stencil to dry-emboss the edge.  You can see just a hint of it in the picture.  Adds a little "oomph". :)

This card is super bright and cheery.  I used a Hero Arts flower set and a "vintage" sentiment from PSX (another pressie from my SIL.)  The blue and green patterned paper on the bottom is actually a journaling box that was on the back of one of my kit papers.  It worked perfectly as flower stems!  I added some bling to the centers and a little notch to the sentiment.

Thanks for stopping by today-and remember the Lily Pad Cards' Birthday Blog Hop starts tomorrow morning at 9 AM!  Lots of inspiration and goodies up for grabs!

Huh?

This share is a fun little card that could be used for announcing a pregnancy (not me! lol) or for congratulating someone on THEIR good news.  Make sure they have a good sense of humor! :)

The pregnancy test stamp is from {ippity}'s "Preggo" stamp set.  The "huh?" sentiment is from Unity's "Mix-up of Cuteness" set.  I couldn't figure out when I would ever use this little sentiment, but when I looked through my stamps yesterday, it just clicked that these two stamps would be fun together!  You can get both right on the Unity Stamp Co. website-just be sure to choose me as your {ippity} chick once you're there! I am also entering this card in the CAS Challenge over on the {ippity} blog.  It's fun to Keep it Simple! :)

Getting Old...

Today's share is a fun birthday card, filled with sarcasm. Kind of...but as a thirty-something girl, I can totally relate to the sentiment! Can you?
I used one of {ippity}'s February releases, "Sucks to Get Old". You can now order that set directly from the Unity website-just click on me as your {ippity} chick!
I paper pieced it with white and hot pink cardstock, then mounted it onto a cropped Spellbinders die cut. The sentiment is heat embossed with white embossing powder. It was a challenge for me to do a "color pop" card like this because I love patterned paper and lots of color! However, I wanted to play along with this week's challenge at the Play Date Cafe. The challenge was to use black and white, with just a splash of hot pink. I missed the deadline to enter, but still wanted to give it a try! You just never know what technique will give you great results!

CAS Lanterns

I am lovin' my new Copics! This card is really the first time that I have really used them since taking my class in April. I'm still learning how to shade and blend, but I was so happy with the way these lantern came out! The challenge for this card, believe it or not, was the size: 4"x9". This was the requirement for this week's CAS-ual Friday Challenge.
I used cardstock and stamps from this month's Counterfeit Kit. I can't believe the number of projects that I have made so far with this kit-more than all of the others combined, I think! So far, I have made 2 single-page layouts, a double-page layout, and 11 cards! Plus, I have 4 more layouts in mind-just need to get my photos printed! Hopefully I can get those done before the August kit is revealed!

Orange You Fabulous!

Just a quick share today-my entry for the Skipping Stones Design sketch challenge. I used the Birthday Purses stamp set from Skipping Stones Design-and I love this sentiment! It's my favorite in the whole set. :)

I also attempted some Copic coloring. I'm embarrassed to admit that I haven't used these at all since coming home from Manchester. I have a limited amount of colors that blend, but I think they work well with this stamp set.

Thanks for stopping by today! Be sure to come back tomorrow for a fun envelope tutorial that I made for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog!

Yakkity Yak...

This is another of my favorite "rejects" from the recent PaperCrafts pub call. I don't know what it is about this card, but I just love it. Just a fun little card to mail a friend. It's a great way to use a journaling lines stamp, too! I have had this set of journaling block stamps from Autumn Leaves for a couple of years now, and they have been sitting on the shelf, uninked. I paired the journaling block with a Hero Arts speech bubble stamp and some cute little Lawn Fawn stamps. All papers are from SEI. Thanks for checking in!

Colorful Hello

I realized that I hadn't shared this little CAS card with you yet. I made this card for {ippity}'s January challenge to use brads. I stamped this little flower and hello from the How YOU Doin' set. The hello stamp had a row of little dots underneath, so I used those dots to place lots of little micro brads from Queen & Co. As much as love these tiny brads, I have had them in my stash for 3 years now (since my very first CKC) and it is time to USE THEM UP! I am now down to just a handful and it feels so good to have actually used them!

The flower was stamped on several different solids then paper pieced. I used the solid sides of patterned paper for this one. It is much thinner than cardstock and works great for piecing small images like this one. Easier to cut, too!

A couple of quick snips to the corners made for an easy tag, and then some cute American Crafts ribbon at the top. The tag is then pop-dotted up to give it some dimension. Super easy card-a great one to keep on hand.

Love You Tons

Even though this card is really simple, it was a hard for me to make! Tiddly Inks' "Refresh Me" challenge was to make an all-white card (the image could be colored.) I don't think that I have ever made a card like this before. I started with the image, which was fine because I could use my colors. Then I struggled because I wanted to use patterned paper-I chose embossed cardstock instead. Then, I wanted to add some fun green ribbon-I chose white twine instead. Finally, I REALLY wanted to add a colored button-but chose white instead. It was tough, I tell you!

This cute little elephant is a free digital stamp from Tiddly Inks. When I printed him, I was trying to think of a cute little saying. As I was looking through some of my clear stamps, I saw this cute little saying in a pack of Studio G valentine sentiments. I had never had a stamp that worked with it, so it had sat, un-inked, for a couple of years. I can't wait to make more using these two stamps! While I do feel "refreshed" by this challenge, I can't wait to add some fun, colorful embellishments to my next cards!

Also, I have not heard from my second place winner from last week's [ippity} stamp giveaway. So, I have drawn another name. Congratulations to...KELLY CRANFILL! Woo-hoo! I know Kelly has a sweet little boy and a new little girl at home, so I know she will have lots of occasions to use the "Love in Return" stamp set from {ippity}.

Mini Valentines

I made lots of cards today, including this set of mini Valentines. Each of these cards is 4"x4", so I was able to get four cards from a 12"x12" sheet of cardstock. Each of the images is stamped and paper-pieced using scraps, so these Valentines are perfect for stretching your scrapping budget! Each of the images is highlighted somewhere with Glossy Accents to give it a little bit of shine.

I pulled out my Marvy scalloped heart punch, too. I don't use this very often, but it was perfect for these CAS cards. It provided a nice base for my paper-pieced images. The stamps are all from Unity's "Mix-Up of Cuteness". So cute!

This set of cards is my entry for the Paper Play Challenge-Clean and Simple.

Owl Hugs

I feel like all of my recent blog posts have started the same way: "Just another quick and easy card..." I have been making a TON of CAS cards lately. Could it be that my style is becoming more streamlined? I'm not sure-but I am loving the CAS style. Cutesy CAS. :)

This stamp set is right up my alley. Mix-Up of Cuteness by Unity. This little owl is the reason that I bought this set! Isn't he a cutie? He worked well with this sketch that I wanted to use from Lucy Abrams, too. Her sketches are CAS, and I have been using a lot of them lately, so maybe that is why my cards are simplified. Whatever it is, I really like this little card. It just makes me smile. I made it for my friend Alina-I hope it makes her smile, too.

Cardstock: Bazzill; patterned paper: Anna Griffin; Stamps: Unity Stamp Co.; twine.

Thank You and Birthday cards

First up is a different type of card than what I usually do. All black and white! This one is based on last Thursday's challenge at 365 cards. The challenge was to use a silhouette on your card, and the twist was that you could only use black and white. This was a hard one! I stamped one of my Mimi images (from DeNami Design) and just colored everything in with a black marker. I was quite pleased with the results! I then reached into my scraps and found a piece of black and white patterned paper from American Crafts. The sentiment is from Lawn Fawn. I stamped it with Versamark ink and then embossed it with white embossing powder. I thought it needed some "oomph", so I gave the girls a little bit of bling with Icicle Stickles.

I just love this next card, Peachy Birthday. This card was also made for the 365 card challenge blog. Last Wednesday's challenge was to "Keep It Simple" by only using one image, one sentiment, and one embellie. Another twist was that you could only use 1/3 of the card surface. Again, quite a struggle for me since I love embellies! I love the patterned paper cake layers, though-I think they are an embellishment in themselves. All of these papers are from an old DCWV stack-Nana's Nursery. The cake stamps are from Lawn fawn, and the sentiment is from imaginisce. The colors were inspired by Mona Pendleton's new challenge blog: CR84FN.

Finally, I have a birthday card for my Hero Arts friend, Marilyn. I missed her birthday the other day, but I still wanted to send her a pretty card. Plus, I owe her one! Marilyn sent me an adorable card last summer, so it's my turn. :) This card is based on Sketch #2 of sketch week by Lucy Abrams. I used another stamp (the dressform) from Lawn Fawn, and the same Imaginisce sentiment. I also embellished the tag a little bit with a Martha Stewart border punch. Making a dent in my stash, too-the red polka dot paper is AT LEAST 10 years old! It came in a Bitty Paper stack from Provo Craft which I got when I first started scrapbooking way back when. I loved the color and the print, though, so it never made it's way into the circular file. I love the combo of red and teal. They look great with the kraft and white, don't you think?

My Scrappy New Year's Goals

I have set a big goal for myself this year. Several scrappy friends have been talking about doing the popular Project 365 albums, where they take a picture each day and scrapbook it. At the end of 2011, they will have 365 photos. I'm not much of a scrapbooker, but I am a die-hard cardmaker. I also like to hoarde scrapping supplies. :) I am combining these two "talents" to create my own spin on Project 365. I am going to post a new project each day (usually a card, but sometimes a layout, tag, gift bag, etc.) My goal: to have completed 365 projects by the end of 2011. The twist: I am not allowing myself to buy ANY new scrappy supplies (other than adhesive) until I meet my goal. That's right-no new stamps, papers, punches, or ribbon. These are all major weaknesses for me! I am, however, continuing to design for Momenta (a VERY generous company that sends me monthly goody boxes) and I am also going to be entering many, many challenges in hopes of winning some new supplies. (Winning is very different from buying, lol!

(This card is out for PUBLICATION!)

I am sharing a few cards with you today. The first two are for this past week's 365 Cards Challenge. This is a new challenge site for me, but it will hopefully keep me both motivated and inspired this year. Monday's challenge was to pick 3 patterns from a list of choices. I chose houndtooth, paisley, and plaid. Since I am trying to use up my scraps, I punched hearts from each of these patterns (and I threw in a polka dot just because I liked it!) Then I stitched the hearts to my card front, scored the edges, and added a stamped sentiment and three tiny gems. Not a bit of adhesive on this card! This card is also based on Day 1 of Lucy's Sketch Challenge.

Tuesday's challenge was "Let's Make Some Noise!" The task: add something that makes noise to your card. I thought about this one for a long time. As I was looking through my stamp sets, I saw the VW bug stamp and the "Just Married" license plate. I thought it would be cute to tie some "cans" to the back of the car. I searched through my embellies, looking for silver beads for the "cans". What I found instead were these two album extenders which came in a package of page protectors. They jingle when you tip the card, making just a bit of noise. I thought it was a pretty creative idea. :)

The third and final card of the day is for my friend and fellow Momenta designer, Kelly Cranfill. She recently had a little girl, Braelyn Joy. Congratulations, Kelly! This card uses a premade card base and chipboard stickers from Momenta. I tried a new technique that I just saw in the new Scrapbooks Etc. magazine. I put masking tape on the back of plain white muslin, then embossed it with a Cuttlebug folder. It really works! It was the perfect touch for my card. This is also my entry for the Cardabilities Sketch Challenge #18.

Thanks for stopping by today! Please come back again tomorrow for some cute and easy "Thank You" cards and the rest of my 365 Cards Challenge entries. As always, I would love to have you leave me a comment-they keep me smiling and motivated!

Garden Gnome Santa Set

I know it's early, but I am starting on Christmas cards for next year. Not because I am super-organized, but because I have tons of Christmas papers, I didn't have time to make as many cards this year, and because I found a new challenge site. :)

I am entering this set in the Christmas Cards All Year 'Round challenge for December. For this challenge, you need to make 5 Christmas cards using a Santa image or the word Santa. I chose this adorable little gnome Santa from Imaginisce.
Each of these cards will also be entered in other challenges, as well:

"Be Merry": Clean and Simple Sketch challenge #121

"Ribbon Sentiment": Sweet Stop Sketch challenge SSS88

"Ho! Ho! Ho!": Card Positioning Systems #180

"Happy Holidays": The Cat's Pajamas TCP#139

"Believe": Card Patterns #96

A Love Beyond Measure

One more quick share this morning before I head upstairs to clean the scraproom. (Ugh!)

This is my entry for this week's CPS challenge. Lots of choices this week, as the challenge was to pick any sketch from 2010 and create a new card. I chose Sketch #180. I used a mix of Unity and {ippity} stamps for this card, and did some coloring and masking (I masked the sentiment before stamping the heart.)

Thanks for stopping by! Hopefully the scraproom will look much better in a few hours. :)

Quick & Easy Ornament Cards

Yes, it's December 21st and I am still working on christmas cards. :)

These ornament cards came together in a flash this morning-just what Santa ordered! I made them in an assembly line by cutting 2.75" x 3.75" panels of white cardstock. Then, I applied glittery ornament rub-ons from Momenta. Using my paper piercer, I pierced a tiny hole thru the "hanger" of each ornament, then knotted white twine around the panel so it looks like the ornaments are hanging from the top of the panel. I added a "Happy Holidays" rub-on sentiment from Imaginisce and mounted the panels to red cards from DeNami Design. Super easy to create and relatively flat to mail!

More Winterberry Christmas Cards

I am in love with the Winterberry Line from Momenta! I am having so much fun using these chipboard stickers-and honestly, I am not a sticker girl. I do love chipboard, however, and these chipboard stickers are so cute you can whip up a cute card in minutes! These are a few more that I have made just this morning-I told you they were quick and easy!

CAS Christmas Cards

I got an early Christmas present from my friend Rachael, who also happens to be the DT Coordinator for Momenta. I love the Winterberry line-gorgeous paper and embellishments! For these super easy cards, I just layered embossed cardstock onto my card front using foam tape, tied silver ribbon around the embossed panel, then adhered a chipboard sticker and string. How easy is that? Quick + cute = two more Christmas cards ready to mail. :)