Be Happy

Oh how I've missed stamping and blogging and blurfing! I have a combo card for you today!

When I stumbled upon Color Throwdown (CTD) and The Friday Mashup (FM),  I knew these were challenges I'd enjoy doing on a regular basis, so rather than creating a card for each, I combined them into one. Obviously, this is nothing new - others do this all the time and why it took me so long to see the light, I'll never know. But it suddenly struck me that this two-for-one deal is a way for me not to burn out on stamping again. Duh!

(sorry for the quality; gray & cloudy when I took this.)

CTD176 was to use Stampin' Up! Pool Party, Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip, and Rose Red, or similar colors.  I used Soft Sky, LSS kraft, Chocolate Chip, and Rose Red.  The patterned papers in Wild Raspberry from K&Co. (one of my all-time faves!) were perfect pairings for this color combo!

FM43 was to make a project using: a) the featured sketch, or b) something new from your stash, or c) Mash It Up and do both, so I chose to Mash It Up!  The something new was the cute birdbath image from SU's Touch of Kindness set.  I inked up some of the images for my stash when I was at my pal Gwen's for the shoebox swap, but I think I'll have to get this set for myself. I added some Stickles to the water and a few Dewdrops for sparkle, and I made that little tag with Tim Holtz Fragments - I love these things!

I hope you enjoy this "mashed up" creation, and maybe you'll be inspired to try one or both of these challenges! Until next time, happy stamping!

Hello! Remember Me?

Well, I'm not surprised if you don't, since it's been over half a year since I posted!  Last June, I felt a need to take a hiatus from blogging and stamping for a while. And I'm happy to say that must have been what I needed, because I'm excited to have ink-stained fingers and a less-than-clean crafting desk again!

A few of my friends finally had our first "shoebox swap" on Monday, something we've been wanting to do for a long time. (Actually, the crafting was over well before the chatting.)  It was so much fun that my friend Gwen & I have decided to create the SCS card sketch each week to keep our mojos motivated.  So for my first post back in the saddle - or should I say back in the stamp room - I give you my take of this week's card sketch!

The cute image from SU's retired Snow Angels is colored with Copics & sparkled with some diamond Stickles, and I think that big sparkly fabric snowflake that I received from a stampin' friend was a perfect accent.  A smaller glittery snowflake, some silver embroidery filament, and a few self-stick silver brads gave more added sparkle.  (Who knew when I made this the other day that we'd wake to 7 inches of new snow today?!)

If you've stopped by for a peek to see if perhaps I fell off the planet (glad I didn't!), please leave a comment so that I know you were here!  Until next time, happy stamping! :-)

Apple Of My Eye!

I'm glad I finally decided to post my December SOTC card today because it's a whopping 5 degrees here at the moment, and this card reminds me of summer!

(click images to enlarge)

Our lovely hostess Donna (SCS=cricutqueen) challenged us to use our favorite color or color combo. You know I adore pink, but I've been dying to use the retired SU Farm Fresh set I recently scored and couldn't see pink working with it. So I decided to use another fav combo of mine, citrusy greens and tropical blues!

The cute Apple Of My Eye image is simply colored with Copics and matted onto a Sizzix tag that I sponged with SU Craft White, tied with coordinating ribbon, and finished with a crisp white button tied with DMC floss. The faux quilt background squares are from the yummy K&Co. Que Sera Sera collection, some of which I dry embossed with various Cuttlebug EFs for texture. A few Dew Drops in the corners finish the card. I hope the Sisters who receive one feel the summery vibe!

The arctic temps outside make this the perfect weekend for stamping today and cheering my PITTSBURGH STEELERS tomorrow in the AFC Championship game as they continue to climb the Stairway To Seven! ;-)

Thanks for visiting! Have a wonderful day!

It's A KitCat Christmas!

It’s another KitCat Sunday and the Kittens are celebrating a heart-felt, homemade Christmas!

Kitten Kelly was our hostess, and she challenged us to create an ornament & gift tin for someone who may not otherwise receive a gift this year. Talk about your warm fuzzies! I think it's a fantastic challenge, and I hope we will inspire YOU to do the same!

Naturally, Kelly’s kit was *bursting* with supplies, including a CD tin and wooden ornament shape along with beautiful papers, ribbons, flowers, glitter glue, bling, and more!

I was immediately drawn to the I Believe! papers from My Mind’s Eye and the glittery red cardstock from DCWV. Even though an image wasn’t a requirement, I just couldn’t resist coloring up the darling image from SU's Greeting Card Kids. I just love the old-school look of these images!

For the tin, I created a paper patchwork, tied the ribbon to hide the seams, and created a cute little winter bouquet with the flowers, cord, snowflake, & glitter brad. The rhinestone star gives a nod to the ornament shape inside.

For the ornament, I sponged the edges with SU Rose Red then painted them with the glitter glue. Then I added a frame cut from the glittery CS and a background from the DP, and made another winter bouquet. I also covered the back with a different DP and added the silver cord hanger.

I had so much fun and such a great feeling in my heart when I was making these, because I knew exactly who would receive them: an elderly widow who calls our office every now and then for advice about this and that. I’m going to send it anonymously and write on the card that a Christmas angel is thinking of her. I hope it warms her heart as much as it does mine!

Sending a warm hug and a big thank-you to Kelly for reminding us to count our blessings, no matter what we may be experiencing, because there are always others who are less fortunate that we.

Be sure to visit the other KitCats to see their wonderful heart-felt, handmade Christmas creations!
Michelle * Lorie * Kelly * Jeanette

Wishing you a wonderful day!

I {Heart} Card Kits, and Nature!

Hello bloggers! I've been feeling sorry for my neglected little blog, so I thought I'd pop on with a quick post before heading to my dad's to do a little housekeeping and yardwork. Summer's on the wane, and I want to enjoy the outdoors as much as possible, even if it involves physical work. After all, it won't be long before the weather folks around here start talking about the "S" word. {shuddering at the thought}


My father-in-law's birthday was July 30 and it completely snuck up on me. (Honestly, almost every birthday this year either snuck up on me or passed me by, something I'm not proud to admit.) I found myself with about 30 minutes to create a card but almost zero guy stamps. However, I do have a lot of card kits, so I grabbed the "GUYS" bag where I found this beary cute kit from "Kate".

I chose this kit because I knew the bear would be super-quick to color. I used the papers in the kit, and found this great stitched ribbon & matching brads in my stash. A simple stamped & hand-cut sentiment tied with some floss finished it.

I am positive this is the fastest card I have ever made, thus reaffirming my love for card kits! ;-)

I'm hoping to see lots of my fine feathered friends while I'm working outside today, like this cheery goldfinch who visited the other day. (click on the picture for a close-up.)

Soon, his bright golden feathers will be replaced with mossy brown ones for the fall & winter. But we'll still have bright red cardinals to liven up the landscape!

Isn't nature beautiful!?!

Thanks for stopping by today. Hope you have a great day!

DETAILS
Image: Stampin Up Under the Stars
Cardstock: Stampin Up, Martha Stewart
Copics: E25,E31,E35,E42,E57
Accents: ribbon (In the Loop), brads (Making Memories), floss (DMC)

What's New Pussycat?

This is the card I made for my second spot in Paola's (Sama) What Music/Song Are You? swap over on SCS. I was listening to an Internet radio station while I was *trying* (unsuccessfully) to catch up on swap threads and saw that she had just one more spot to fill before she left for a much-needed two-week vacation to Mexico. Remember, she is The Temptress and I cannot tell her no. Plus, her surrogate hostess, Jeanette (ForestRanger) was also issuing pleas to fill the spot, so of course, I took it. After all, I couldn't have Paola wondering for two weeks if her swap was full. LOL!

At that moment, Tom Jones was belting out What's New Pussycat? and for some reason, SU's Cool Cat popped into my mind. I hadn't used it for a loooong time and figured it would be easy enough to pull something together, right? Wrong. My card-making mojo was tapped, so off I went to Mike's for inspiration. I tend to shy away from brighter colors, but I really liked the shades of blue and green in this patterned paper -- they reminded me of Kelly (MiamiKel4) because she loves bright colors and uses them so well in her cards. It was almost as if she were saying, "Go for it, Sus!" So I bought it, in honor of Kelly, because she's so bright and sunny!

I stamped Cool Cat in Tempting Turquoise on WW (yes, Kelly, I *actually* own Bold Brights Stampin' Spots), added some sparkly Sakura dots to her collar, and gave her eyes, ears, and nose some color with Prisma pencils. Then I cut her out and popped her up on dimensionals. (I'm happy to say that no whiskers nor tails were lost!) I prefer using something other than Whisper White for card bases, but nothing else really worked without taking away from the DP. The Caribbean blue CS that I used for the base mat & Nesties came from my daughter's old cheerleading scrapbook stash. I added white dots to all the mats with a Sakura pen for some definition.

The sentiment was computer generated on WW, but I was at a loss for embellishments. I tried brads, dew drops, ribbon - nothing felt *sassy* enough. Then I saw those tassels I bought for no other reason than that they were on clearance. Sassy! (SEE? Eventually, all of that stuff we buy for no reason *will* find a purpose!)

So what do you think? I'm satisfied -- but not thrilled -- with the results. I hope that Paola and the recipients will be happy with them -- that's all that matters to me!

Finally! My last March swap commitment will be postal tomorrow (Priority, of course) then I can breathe. I enjoy swapping but I totally over-committed myself for March. I'm anxious to start learning new techniques to use in my card-making and to get working on those scrapbooks for my daughter. She's only 25, you know; maybe I'll get them done before she's 30.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Creating!
Susan

(Last Week's) Wednesday Sketch Challenge

I know, I know. I'm a week behind because this is last week's SC210 and there's already another sketch challenge over on SCS calling my name. What can I say, except, oh well, that's life. At least I did complete the sketch, and that's one thing I want to do so I can (try to) keep my card-making mojo from wandering off.

For this card, I finally broke open my Prismacolor pencils I bought several months ago, and I realized that I FORGOT HOW MUCH I LIKE TO COLOR!!! :-) Opening that tin gave me the same feeling of getting new crayons as a kid. I was always asking for a new box of Crayolas...you know, the 64-color pack with the cool, built-in sharpener right on the back of the box!! I think my mom thought I ate them or something because I went through them so fast. I remember opening the box for the first time and looking at all the wonderful colors, each one pristine and perfectly pointy. Then I had to organize them by color, which was my sister's fault. She taught me about the color wheel and all, and she always had her oil pastels organized by color, so I just thought that's what everyone did with their crayons, too. I have a bunch of fabulous images from a couple image swaps and from my SCS sisters that I can't wait to color!

The color inspiration for this card came from the beautiful BasicGrey "Sugared" paper pack that I received from my SCS secret sister friend, Tanja! The card base and border panels are all Bravo Burgundy. The main image from SU Merci is stamped twice onto very vanilla. I colored both images, then cut out the flower, large heart, and small hearts from one and popped them up on top of the other. The sentiment and heart flourish are from some See-D's sets. I stamped, colored, and cut out some small hearts from Merci , then added a pink organza ribbon. I was going to add some dew drops or brads or something, but remembered what the very sweet and talented Sandra said on her blog the other day - less is more. I've also learned the hard way that sometimes, you just need to leave something alone. So I did. I'm sending this to a special friend and hope she likes it!

So, will I have this week's sketch challenge completed tomorrow??? Highly doubtful. Oh, I could just about spend every spare minute back here in my craft room playing with my stamps and papers, and sometimes I do. (I often wonder if Neighbor Bob or Neighbor Sandy get up for a glass of water, only to see my light on at all hours, wondering what the heck I'm doing in here?) But the fact is, I lobbied for and received a new treadmill for Christmas that I promised myself I would use at least every other day, to lose some extra mid-life poundage and to be in better physical and aerobic shape. So I need to show it some love tomorrow when I get home from work. But maybe I can find a few spare minutes after dinner . . . .

Happy Creating!

Susan