January 25, 2009

Crazy for Cupcakes

Here's another card for the Taylored Expressions cupcake challenge. This one was tricky. It's a gate fold card opening from the top. I used my circle nestabilities for the circles on the opening flap. The colors came from an old color challenge over at Splitcoast Stampers: chocolate chip, groovy guava and barely banana. Paper for the baloon came from a retired SU Designer Series Paper (I think it's ginger blossoms). The back side of the baloon paper is used for the rectangle on the base of the card. For the guava border, I used my scallop edge punch and an 1/8 inch circle punch to make an eye-let like border.

January 24, 2009



Sock Monkey, anyone?!

Here is a fun little card I made today based on a sketch challenge I found over at Taylored Expressions. One of the designers for this challenge came up with this challenging sketch and you can see it here on her blog. I used the sock monkey set, and I think this set grows on me more each time I use it. Confession: It was not my favorite set by far when it first came out. I found some prints pack designer papers in my scrap bin to make the paper pieced part of the monkey and the background squares. This is a bit of an odd color combo, but I think it works pretty well. Thoughts?

Wish RAK contest cards

The following cards are for this month's Wish RAK contest over at splitcoast stampers. I've never even done these before, and they are quite a lot of fun. The main challenge is that you have to use something you received via wish RAK somewhere on each of your cards. Then each challenge that is posted puts additional restrictions on them. By the way, if you haven't looked into wish RAK, you should really check it out. It's lots of fun and a great way to save money and space on buy stamped images. Plus, it's always a surprise what you will get. :D

The first Challenge: Baby, it's cold outside. The challenge is to use the colors Bordering Blue, Night of navy, very vanilla and a "hint" of pretty in pink. Additionally, it has to have a hot drink somewhere one the card. So, I received via wish RAK a Riley sitting in his recliner drinking a cup of coffee while eating a cupcake, and this is the only "hot drink" image I had so I went with it. I used the pink on his mug and cupcake. The background is cuttlebugged with snowflakes. The sentiment was also something I received via wish RAK.

The second challenge: Die Cut Dilemma. The challenge here is to use a die cut somewhere on your card. I have Valentine's Day on the brain and so my card for this one is all about love. It's a gate-fold card with the opening being a heart. I cut out a heart with my nesties (I just had to have a set of these myself to do my Valentine's stuff--I love hearts), and the hand cut the stamped heart and layered it on the ridinghood red one. Then I cut another littler heart and layered it on top of that one. From the pretties kit, I took a small flower and small rhinestone brad and put them through the hearts. I used a piece of DSP out of my Bella paper and covered the right flap with that leaving a bit of a pink border on the edge. I used the flat pearls out of the pretties kit as well to outline the heart on the DSP. On the Pirouette Pink side I used a marker and made dots around the outside of the heart to outline it. Then I stamped the sentiment on the lower edge.

The third challenge: Sketch it. This one was fun, too. It uses a sketch from www.pagemaps.com as the challenge. There was really no additional restrictions to this challenge. For mine, I had this adorable bear from a wish RAK and decided to use him. I colored his heart pink and then embossed with iridescent ice. I then used my nesties and paper left over from the previous card to make the embellishments.



January 17, 2009

January Virtual Stamp Night Challenges at Splitcoast




Okay, here's the slideshow of the cards I'm doing for the challenge this weekend. These have been quite challenging at times since they should be completed with 45 minutes. I haven't completed very many, but I will keep working at them and add to the slides. Hopefully I'll get them all done before the end of the month, LOL. If you want to see more information on them visit my gallery at splitcoast stampers web site.

Another round of challenge cards plus some...


Splitcoast is hosting a Virtual Stamp Night mini challenge this weekend, and it's all about love. I have been having lots of fun working on those challenges. Watch for a slideshow to come of those cards as well. So, it's official, I'm hooked on Splitcoast, but it's been forcing my creativity to expand and improve in a lot of ways and that's the great thing about it.

Mean while, here's a card I whipped up late, late last night for a family member's birthday. It's made with morning soft stamp set and watercolored with markers. The paper is soft sky overstamped with the floral background stamp in night of navy ink. I think it turned out really pretty. What do you think?

January 09, 2009

Well, I finally finished all the cards...

At least the ones I will be able to finish from the challenge over at Splitcoast Stampers. There were a few that I just simply had nothing to use on those cards. Shocking, but true.

It may be a while before I post much more. So please, bear with me. It's been a very difficult month for me personally. At times, I'm doing well to keep my head above water and keep from sinking. So bear with me as I go through this season of my life and re-establish where I'm going.

Hopefully I'll be able to get a few cards posted, though. I received a wish RAK today that had one of my favorite scriptures in it. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on thy own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He will direct thy path." I have to believe in that scripture right now through all the hurt I'm feeling that He has a plan for me and my life will be better for it.

Sorry to be depressing, but this is also therapeutic for me as well. I hope that all is well with each of you and that you will all have a blessed and happy day!

January 02, 2009

Cards for Soldiers Wish RAK New Year's Challenge



Over the New Year holiday Splitcoast stampers hosted a challenge to make lots of cards to be sent to soldiers overseas. Since I think this is an awesome and very worthy cause, I decided to participate. We owe our soldiers so much, and this is one small way I felt I could give something back to them since they give so much everyday for each of us Americans. The above slideshow is a collection of the cards I made to fit the various challenges. Hopefully, I will find the time to post each card individually along with what the challenge was. But for now, here's at least a view. I still have quite a few more challenges to do so I will try to remember to add them to this slideshow as I finish them. Enjoy!