OK, I’ll be the first to say that’s a pretty weird post title.  But that’s what you get when you combine a Dynamic Duos challenge, a sketch challenge, and images from a stamp set called “Love ‘n Breakfast.”

Today’s card uses the colors from Dynamic Duos challenge #26, So Saffron and More Mustard.  The layout is Splitcoaststampers.com sketch #408.  I thought the colors worked well with the toast image (I don’t like my toast to be very dark), and the sentiment didn’t make much sense without the toaster, so it got added into the card, too. I sponged the edges of the designer papers and the focal panel with More Mustard ink.

 

The more I think about it, I suppose this card works really well for Lydia’s Hope You Can Cling To challenge, too.  She’s challenged us to make a card that reflects our own personal style.  I think this card shows off that I tend to make “clean and layered” cards – clean lines, no big puffy embellishments, but more layers than one would typically consider “clean and simple”.  It also shows that I like to combine challenges.  Plus I’ve used some of the Nestabilities dies and Lawn Fawn stamps that I love. And there’s no glitter!

And that’s what my dynamic sketchy toast is all about.

(Great… now I have the Hokey Pokey going through my head… oy.)

Supplies:
Stamps: Love ‘n Breakfast (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Pure Luxury Ivory (Gina K. Designs); More Mustard, So Saffron Prints designer papers (Stampin’ Up)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento); More Mustard (SU)
Other: markers (Copic); standard circle Nestabilities die (Spellbinders); sponge

We’ve made it through another week, and now it’s Friday again, which means it’s time for another Sweet ‘n Sassy Digi Challenge! This week the challenge is Stitching. We encourage you to make a project using a digital image and embellish it with stitching. It doesn’t matter if you hand sew your stitches, or use a sewing machine, or even draw faux stitches on your work – it’s all good! Share your project with us at the Sweet ‘n Sassy Digi Challenge site by midnight eastern time Thursday, November 1. You’re not required to use a Sweet ‘n Sassy digital image for your project, but we do love when you use those (and you get the chance for perks if you do – see the Digi Challenge site for more details).

I decided to go clean and simple with this week’s challenge, and I used a lot of older supplies to create my card.  The layout is based on an OWH Stars and Stamps blog sketch from 2010, but I centered the focal panel.  The card base is one of Stampin’ Up’s first In Colors which was offered in their 2006-2007 catalog.  The designer papers I used for the strip along the bottom of the card and for paper piecing the puppy are from one of my first Basic Grey 6″ x 6″ paper pads.  And the embroidery floss I used for the stitched border is from my cross-stitching days, so that goes back at least to the mid 1990s!  I used two colors – one strand of blue, and one of brown – in the needle at the same time.  The vanilla cardstock isn’t too old; I’ve had it for maybe 6 months or so.  However, the digital image is brand new to me.  It’s from a Sweet ‘n Sassy digital set that includes the puppy image, a bone, paw prints, and two sentiments.  I used the mirror image of the puppy because it was easier for me to align the sentiment with the image that way and print it all at once.

My card also fits the Hope You Can Cling To challenge being presented today at Splitcoaststampers.com.  I hope you’ll check out the HYCCT challenges there and participate in spreading some cheer and good will to cancer patients and their families.

Supplies:
Digital Image: Puppy Love (Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps)
Cardstock: Cool Caribbean, Very Vanilla (Stampin’ Up); papers from Blush 6″ x 6″ paper pad (Basic Grey)
Ink: printer ink
Other: embroidery floss (DMC); dimensionals (SU)

I have to admit that this week’s Dynamic Duos color combo of orange and black had me stumped for a while.  I didn’t want to make a Halloween card, and I struggled with a few different ideas in my head that just didn’t seem like they would work.  Finally I decided to see if I could tweak one of my previous cards to work with these colors, and I settled on this one from January 2011.  I added a couple panels to the design, stretched it to a rectangle, and reversed the positions of the flowers and the flourishes.  The sentiment stamp that I chose lets this card fit into this week’s OWH Midweek Throwdown challenge.

 

Supplies:
Stamps: Sage Advice, Priceless (Stampin’ Up)
Cardstock: Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black, Very Vanilla (SU)
Ink: Pumpkin Pie (SU); Onyx Black (VersaFine)
Other: black brads (SU); flowers (Prima Marketing); petite oval and petite scalloped oval Nestabilities dies (Spellbinders)

It’s time for another Sweet ‘n Sassy Digi Challenge, but we have some extra fun this week! Along with our challenge, the Sweet ‘n Sassy Digi Challenge Design Team is having a blog hop to introduce you to the October Digi Release. We are all pretty excited about that!  Links to all the participating blogs are below.

This week’s challenge is Using Metal. Use any sort of metal embellishment on your creation – brads, decorative clips, ribbon slides, even wired ribbon. Use one piece of metal or several – it’s up to you! Just keep in mind the guidelines for Sweet ‘n Sassy Digi Challenges:

  • Please use digital images ONLY for the focal point of your creation(s) for this challenge.
  • Be sure to link your creation(s) to the Sweet ‘n Sassy Digi Challenge blog. Every card you enter in our challenges throughout the month of October gives you one chance to win 3 digital stamps of your choice from the Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps store! So the more you play, the more chances you have to win!
  • Sweet ‘n Sassy digital images are not required, but we really love it when our challenge participants use them! Every week, one participant who uses a Sweet ‘n Sassy digital image is spotlighted. We feel that our challenge participants who use Sweet ‘n Sassy images deserve a little extra recognition.
  • When uploading to online galleries, please use keyword SNSDC76.

I’ve used the new Kiwi’s Gift digital image for today’s card.  Isn’t Kiwi adorable?  Although all the images being released today are Christmas-y in nature, I wanted to show how this one can be used any time of the year.  So I’ve created a birthday card with it.  I chose photo turns for my metal embellishment. The sentiment is from Masculine Birthday Greetings, another SNSS digital stamp set.  I took my color scheme from this week’s Splitcoaststampers.com color challenge, and the layout is this week’s SCS sketch challenge.

Now, here’s the list of the blog hop participants.  While you’re hopping, be sure to leave some love on each of the blog hop posts. One of the team members is a mystery blogger and she will be picking a random winner from the comments on her blog post! The winning prize will be the whole October Digi Release! How incredible is that?!? The winner will be announced on the Sweet ‘n Sassy Digi Challenge site on Friday, October 26.

Tricia Traxler
Cynthia Olheiser
Crafty Math Chick
Ceal Pritchett
Patricia Hays <— you are here!
Stephanie Wright

I hope you’ll have fun hopping along with us, and that you’ll share your metal challenge creation with us this week!

Supplies for today’s card:
Digital Images: Kiwi’s Gift, Masculine Birthday Greetings (Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps)
Cardstock: Pure Luxury Ivory (Gina K. Designs); designer papers from Razzleberry Lemonade and Spring Flowers paper packs (Stampin’ Up)
Ink: printer ink
Other: photo turns from Hodgepodge Hardware, twill ribbon (SU); classic rectangles Nestabilities die (Spellbinders); Premier colored pencils (Prismacolor); odorless mineral spirits (Houston Arts)

Here’s what I came up with for the Dynamic Duos color challenge to use Pool Party and Soft Suede.  I tore the white cardstock to create the snow drifts.  I added some Stickles to the tops of the snow drifts to mimic the sun glistening on the snow (and so the lower drifts would show up better in the photo), and decided to put some on the tree for a little extra sparkle.  When I created this card I had the Pinking Shears Hope You Can Cling To challenge (using a decorative, not-straight-cut edge) in mind, but I think instead I’ll use this as my card for the Shine It Out! challenge to use more sparkle and shine than normal.

Thanks for stopping by today!  🙂

All supplies except the Stickles are from Stampin’ Up.
Stamps: Branch Out, Trendy Trees
Cardstock: Pool Party, Soft Suede, Whisper White textured
Ink: Soft Suede
Other: Star Dust Stickles (Ranger)

This is a quick card I created using this week’s OWH Stars & Stamps sketch, Edna’s Five Words Hope You Can Cling To challenge, and the Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps October Release Party challenge to create a clean and simple card with no images, just a sentiment.  My idea behind this was to have the colored strips resemble prize ribbons.

 

Thanks for stopping by today!

Supplies:
Stamps: You (Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps)
Cardstock: Kraft, Brilliant Blue, Whisper White, Real Red (Stampin’ Up)
Ink: Onyx Black (VersaFine)
Other: Grommet Tags die (Spellbinders); rhinestones (SU)

hoppy kangaroo

Comments Off on hoppy kangaroo
Oct 162012

My friend Taylor is hosting today’s Hope You Can Cling To challenge over at Splitcoaststampers.com, and I was more than happy to help her out when she asked if I would make a sample card for her challenge.  It’s called Two Times the Fun, and the idea is to use two of each item on your card… two different colors, two designer papers, two different ribbons, etc.

After giving this some thought, I decided to create a simple little scene with two colors of designer paper.  I used two different stamps – one for the image, and one for the sentiment.  The sentiment has two words, and the image has two kangaroos.  I snipped the edge of the green paper to make it look more like grass.  I added two pieces of twine, in two different colors, as an embellishment at the top of the card. I think it turned out pretty cute if I say so myself.

I hope you’ll join the Splitcoaststampers community throughout the rest of October as we join together in creating cards for the patients at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas and their families.  You can get all the details about the different challenges and the prizes that will be awarded to challenge participants in November at Splitcoaststampers.com.

Supplies:
Stamps: Critters Down Under (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Daffodil Delight, Basic Black (Stampin’ Up); Larkspur and Ivy from Oh Baby! Boy collection (Basic Gray); Pure Luxury White [for stamping the kangaroos] (Gina K. Designs)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Other: markers (Copic); Lemon and Orange twine (Really Reasonable Ribbon)

Hello! It’s Friday! I am SO definitely looking forward to this weekend! Tonight is our high school’s homecoming, so I’m looking forward to the football game. Our whole family will be out at the stadium tonight supporting the team and the marching band. Then on Saturday, my older son and I will be going to the Virginia Tech football game with some of our band friends! Whether Tech wins or loses, it’s bound to be loads of fun!

Another fun thing about it being Friday is that it’s time for a new Sweet ‘n Sassy Digi Challenge! This week our challenge is to use a digital image and a craft item you’ve been hoarding to make a card of appreciation. You don’t have to use a Sweet ‘n Sassy digital image, but we do enjoy seeing our participants use them (and you get the chance for extra perks if you do – see the Digi Challenge site for more details!). Link your card at the Sweet ‘n Sassy Digi Challenge site by midnight eastern time Thursday, October 18.

I have to admit I really had to think about what craft item(s) I would relinquish my hold on for this challenge.  I finally decided using some of my Purely Pomegranate supplies would be a sacrifice.  I just LOVE this color and because Stampin’ Up has retired it, once I use all of it up, that’s it.  No more.  Ever.  (Unless I manage to find some at a reasonable price on the secondary market…)  So I’ve used some Purely Pomegranate cardstock and stitched ribbon on today’s card.  I paired it up with chocolate brown, kraft and cream for a warm color scheme.  I also used some of the chocolate satin ribbon that I love. I adhered the largest mat to the card front with dimensional adhesive, which has the unfortunate effect of distorting the appearance of the left side of the card and making the borders look uneven.  Maybe one day I will remember that when I photograph my cards, and angle them differently.

I wanted to combine this challenge with one of the Hope You Can Cling To challenges and decided to go with Giovana’s. I used three different punches for the flowers, and added in the corner punch for good measure.  The flowers were sponged with a little Purely Pomegranate ink. I thought this sentiment was particularly suitable for one of the cancer patients to use to thank a supportive friend.  The layout for this card is this week’s Freshly Made Sketch, flipped horizontally and turned on its side.  I’ve substituted the largest flower for the bow in the sketch.

Thanks for stopping by today!  Be sure to see what the rest of the Design Team has created and give them some comment love.  Links to their blogs are in the left sidebar.  Then join us in our challenge this week!

Supplies for today’s card:
Digital Image: A True Friend (Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps)
Cardstock: Naturals Ivory, Chocolate Chip, Purely Pomegranate, Kraft, Prints Sampler designer series paper (Stampin’ Up)
Ink: printer ink; Purely Pomegranate (SU)
Other: 5-Petal punch, Spring Blossoms punch, Boho Blossoms punch, ticket corner punch, Chocolate Chip satin ribbon, Purely Pomegranate stitched ribbon (SU); brads (Making Memories); sponge

Here’s a quick CAS card I made for the Dynamic Duos color challenge that ends today.  I used the digital version of the orange from this stamp set so I could enlarge it to better fit the space on the card. I’ll admit this isn’t one of my best coloring jobs, but I think it’ll be all right for a kid’s card per Lori’s Hope You Can Cling To challenge.

Supplies:
Digital Image: Orange You Sweet (Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps)
Sentiment Stamp: Punny Fruits & Veggies (SNSS)
Cardstock: Tangerine Tango, Naturals Ivory, Old Olive (Stampin’ Up)
Ink: printer ink; Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Other: markers (Copic); ribbon (Offray)

All during the month of October, Splitcoaststampers is sponsoring Hope You Can Cling To to benefit the MD Anderson Cancer Center. A different challenge is being presented each day of the month. I’m excited to be hosting the challenge for today, October 9!

My challenge is called You Had Me In Stitches.  Sadly, one of the results from surgery to remove cancerous growths can be stitches. But as a popular saying goes, “laughter is the best medicine”, and when one laughs a lot they are said to be “in stitches”.  Also, studies have shown that laughter produces endorphins – brain chemicals that help relieve pain and make one feel better.  So my challenge is to make humorous cards using stitching (hand, machine, or faux) as an embellishment.

This bear image and sentiment always make me giggle.  How many of us have ever put on clothes and wondered how they look on our backsides?  Pretty much all of us, am I right? 🙂  For the stitching, I used one strand of green embroidery floss and one strand of red floss in the needle at the same time.

I hope you’ll join in the Hope You Can Cling To challenges at Splitcoaststampers.com and help bring cheer to the cancer patients at MD Anderson!

Supplies:
Stamps: Beary Christmas (Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps)
Cardstock: Pure Luxury White (Gina K. Designs); designer paper from Holly Jolly Christmas 6″ x 6″ paper pad (Echo Park)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento); Riding Hood Red (Stampin’ Up)
Other: red and green embroidery floss (DMC); markers (Copic); sponge


Hello!  Welcome to my stop on the Operation Write Home World Card Making Day Blog Hop! Today we’re celebrating the fun and joy of making cards by sharing cards made for the purpose of sending to our military members stationed overseas, so that they may write to their family and friends back at home.

Since the Christmas holiday season is quickly approaching, we’ve been asked to make cards suitable for Christmas or winter, based on any card sketch we’ve found.  I have two cards for you today so I will try not to chat too much!

First is a Christmas card.  I started out with OWH Stars & Stamps Sketch #52, but it didn’t quite end up looking like the sketch.  I originally had a different image, but when I was coloring it, my marker sprung a leak and the color bled where it wasn’t supposed to go.  I had this digital image already printed and cut, so I decided to go ahead and use it even though it wasn’t a circular shape.  Then I realized it would look better if I used the mirror image of the sketch, so it wouldn’t seem like the bear was looking off the edge of the card.  So, even though my card is a little different than the sketch, I think it turned out all right in the end:

Since the first card didn’t turn out as planned, I decided to make a second card and stick more carefully to the way the sketch was drawn.  I also wanted to make something that could be suitable for pretty much any recipient – male or female, age 1 to 101, because I feel those are most versatile for the troops to use.  This time I chose OWH Stars & Stamps Sketch #43.  I like it because it’s easy to create a little scene on the tilted panel.  The iceberg, penguin, and speech bubble were all fussy cut and then adhered to the snowflake panel.  I added some shimmery paint to the iceberg for some extra visual interest.  I spent a little time debating whether to make this a “thinking of you” card or a “love” card.  Love won out in the end:

Thanks for stopping by today!  I hope you’ll join me in creating cards for this wonderful cause.

Supplies for the bear card:
Digital Image: Rhubarb Trims the Tree (Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps)
Sentiment Stamp: Cozy Friends (SNSS)
Cardstock: Riding Hood Red (Stampin’ Up); Pure Luxury Ivory (Gina K. Designs); designer papers from Blitzen collection (Basic Grey)
Ink: printer ink; Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Other: Labels One Nestabilities die (Spellbinders); markers (Copic); mini star brad (The Paper Studio); dimensionals (SU)

Supplies for the penguin card:
Stamps: Critters in the Snow, Love ‘n Breakfast, A Birdie Told Me (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Baja Breeze, Basic Black (Stampin’ Up); Pure Luxury White (Gina K. Designs); designer paper from Fa La La collection petite paper pack (Lawn Fawn)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Other: Frost White shimmer paint (Tsukineko)

We’ve made it through another week, and now it’s Friday again, which means it’s time for another Sweet ‘n Sassy Digi Challenge! This week we have a Tic Tac Toe challenge for you.  Use any three challenge ideas in a row from the following tic tac toe board to come up with the elements you need to include in your creation, along with a digital image.

I decided to go straight down the middle of the board for my card.  I chose the digital image of Rhubarb the bear holding a sunflower.  The corners of the image panel were punched to give the concave rounded shape, and then highlighted with teeny brads.  I drew in the grass by hand so Rhubarb wouldn’t look like he was just floating around randomly.  Although I do have the “I {heart} you” sentiment in digital form, I decided to use the clear stamp version of it today because it was easier to get that positioned on the card where I wanted it.

I also tied in one of the Splitcoaststampers.com Hope You Can Cling To challenges with today’s card.  Victoria’s challenge is to use strips behind the focal image.  I used three different colors of ribbon for my strips.  This was the first time I tried putting ribbon through my Xyron machine and using that for my ribbon adhesive.  It worked wonderfully, except that the ends of the ribbons that I peeled off the backing first frayed.  So I put those ends on the right where the focal panel covered that up.

We’ve had some changes in the Sweet ‘n Sassy Digi Design Team.  We’re sad to see several people leave, but happy that Cynthia and Tricia have joined us!  Please go check out everyone’s blogs, which are all linked in the left sidebar, and give them some bloggy love.  Then go play tic tac toe and share your creation over at the Sweet ‘n Sassy Digi Challenge website!  You have until midnight eastern time Thursday, October 11 to link your work.  We’d love to see what you create!

Supplies for today’s card:
Digital Image: Rhubarb’s Sunflower (Sweet ‘n Sassy Stamps)
Sentiment Stamp: Love From Cocoa (SNSS)
Cardstock: Kraft, Chocolate Chip (Stampin’ Up); Pure Luxury Ivory (Gina K. Designs)
Ink: printer ink; Chocolate Chip (SU)
Other: mini brads (Recollections); Apricot, Taupe and Chocolate grosgrain ribbons, ticket corner punch (SU); markers (Copic)

My husband and I just celebrated a kind of “mini milestone” wedding anniversary.  We’ve been married for 20 years now.  We’ve had some ups and downs over the years but it’s hard for me to imagine riding the roller coaster of life with anyone else.

He isn’t really into mushy cards, but I didn’t want to go humorous for this event.  And there were a few cardmaking challenges I wanted to get in on this week.  So I went sentimental in less obvious ways.  I knew I wanted some red on the card, and since the current Dynamic Duos color challenge is to use Cherry Cobbler and any other color, I decided to use Cherry Cobbler for my red.  I’d remembered seeing lists of “what you’re supposed to give for anniversary gifts” – i.e. first anniversary, paper; 25th anniversary, silver; 50th anniversary, gold; etc., but didn’t recall what the 20th anniversary was.  I did a little researching online and found that for the 20th anniversary, the traditional gift is china and the modern gift is platinum.  So I thought, “platinum = gray” and decided to use Going Gray for the second color of my color combo – which also worked out perfectly for one of the Splitcoaststampers.com Hope You Can Cling To challenges, to create a card that’s mostly gray with a splash of another color. (OK, I understand Dynamic Duos doesn’t like their challenges combined with other color challenges and normally I wouldn’t do that, but IMO since one of the DD colors was “participant’s choice” a little leeway should be allowed.)  I sneaked in some more sentimentality by putting 20 hearts on the tree, one for each year.  Ten are in full strength Cherry Cobbler ink and ten were stamped off once, to represent the two of us being partners in our relationship.  I opted for a very straightforward, simple sentiment.  The embossed panel started out white, but then I swiped my Cherry Cobbler ink cube over it to make the embossing show off and to add some more color to the card.  The layout is one of my all-time favorite Operation Write Home Stars & Stamps sketches, #93.

Then after I had the card all assembled, I was looking at it, and remembered that the color of the dresses our bridesmaids wore was called “ruby” – not quite as dark as Cherry Cobbler, but similar to it.  And my husband and his groomsmen wore charcoal grey.  Yes, really.  Coincidence?  Who knows.

My husband doesn’t often say much about my cardmaking.  But when he pulled this one out of the envelope, the first words out of his mouth were, “Oh, I like the colors!”  Yay.  🙂

Here’s to the next 20 years!

I also made a “twin” of this card for my Hope You Can Cling To stash.

All supplies for this card are from Stampin’ Up unless otherwise noted:
Stamps: Branch Out, Three Little Words, Small Sayings
Cardstock: Going Gray textured, Basic Gray, Whisper White
Ink: Going Gray, Cherry Cobbler, Basic Gray
Other: D’Vine Swirls embossing folder (ProvoCraft); small scallop border die (Papertrey Ink); sponge

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