Summer Memories

Happy Saturday! We have spent the last few days moving youngest DD into an apartment at her college. Boo Hoo-I'm going to miss that young lady! I can't believe that summer is coming to an end. It went by so fast, and thankfully we have lots of wonderful memories. My card today was created using a Victorine Originals image called Children Playing. It was made for three challenges. First, the SCS Inspirational challenge where I chose the yellow wallpaper placemat as my inspiration. My designer paper which is mostly covered up now (eye roll) is from Webster Pages & looks nearly identical. The second challenge was the CPS231 sketch challenge. 

I altered my card size to 5.5 X 5.5 inches. The last challenge I used in creating my card for the day was the CR84FN36 challenge. The colors are shown below.

My ribbons are from SU! & I used my Bow-Easy to create the multi-looped bow. The pretty little button is Making Memories Vintage Findings. I really love both of these challenges & now that fall is arriving, I will have more time for challenges. Thanks for stopping! You know how much it means. Have a great evening!
Hugs,

Marilyn

A Rose is a Rose

 

Roses have to be one of the most beautiful flowers in the world. I just love this retired DSP from SU! called Bella Rose- which my stash is almost all gone. As much as I have loved it; it has become an 'old toy' so it's time to move on to something new. For my card, I used different  papers for the upper and lower section from the  Bella Rose collection. I stamped the rose using the large rose stamps from the retired "A Rose is A Rose" set; first in "Pretty in Pink" followed by "Riding Hood Red ", then I cut the rose out and placed it on a nestie eyelet square die-cut with a "Pretty in Pink" center.  The white ribbon is from American Crafts & the pink ribbon from Michaels. I used the Bow-easy to created the double bow. I think this card would work for many occasions- Valentines, sympathy, birthday or 'thinking of you'. It's nice to have a few generic cards like this ready to go. I'll leave the inside blank until I'm ready to send. Thanks for stopping by to see me & I hope you have a great week! 

Hugs, 

Marilyn

Initial Sticker Cards

Happy Friday!!! Here are more cards that were part the decorative gift box (see previous post). The initials are stickers from Michael's $1 bin. I like the colors and the design. Although it is a little difficult to see, the larger cards' paper is white with pale pink (pink pirouette) dots. The bows were made using the 'bow-easy'. If you don't have that tool, seriously consider it. It is inexpensive and really makes a gorgeous bow super fast! Have a happy weekend!

Mambo Love

Happy February! I used the SCS sketch challenge from last Wednesday for this card (SC265).
This cute Stampendous stamp is called "Chantigo's Love Balloons". I used my copic markers to color the image. I am still learning but I think it turned out okay. My Bow Easy helped me make this triple looped bow in this smaller size and then I popped a button with scrapper's floss on top. What do you think?

Recipe:
Stamps: Chantingo's Love Balloon (Stampendous), So Many Sayings (SU!)
Paper: Melon Mambo, Perfect Plum, DP-Razzleberry Lemonade (SU!), Solar White (Neenah)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Momento), Melon Mambo (SU!), Copics R02, E27, RV11, RV14, R37
Accessories: Melon Mambo polka dot ribbon, Word window punch (SU!), button (stash), Scrappers Floss (Karen Foster), Bow Easy

TDS Challenge Card

Another Digi Shack Thursday challenge, and once again, I am preparing for the upcoming holidays. Today the challenge is "Fall in Love" challenge where you use only fall colors. I chose to add to my Thanksgiving cards and I picked this adorable little squirrel with a pumpkin from The Digi Shack (another $1 image).

I am not much of a CAS girl (clean and simple), but I am trying to adapt from my usual many layers and DSP and sometimes complicated sketches to a CAS style...at least every now and then. The stretching outside my comfort zone really helps my creativity and well...challenges me. However, my CAS cards always look "naked" to me so probably I add more than a purest would. But hey, you can only change a little at a time. Anyway, I am not sure if I pulled the CAS technique off, but this is definitely simpler than my usual card. But I like it mainly because of this adorable squirrel image. Hop on over and play.

Recipe:
Image: Squirrel with Pumpkin (The Digi Shack), Sentiment- Occasions Collection (retired hostess- Stampin' Up)
Paper: Craft, Whisper White, Dusty Durango (Stampin' Up)
Ink: Markers- Creamy Caramel, Dusty Durange, Chocolate Chip, Always Artichoke
Accessories: Ribbon- Jersey (retired Stampin' Up), Bow-Easy

Blog Hop with The Digi Shack Mauiwowies

Happy Saturday! Today the Digi Shack's design team, the Mauiwowies, are having a blog hop just in time for the Holiday image release later in the afternoon. To join the hop, start at the home base...The Digi Shack. We are celebrating the holidays. {There I go again on my holiday card making kick ;)}

My first card is this gorgeous shoe image. The inside reads, "Hey, Girlfriend, Happy Thanksgiving!" Paper piecing is so easy with digital images, just load your printer with your DSP. I kept the design very simple in order to keep the focus on the Houndstooth shoe. The DSP is from the new SU! holiday mini catalog {sales start 9/1; see my SU! sidebar}; it is called Autumn Meadows.

My second card for our Mauiwowie blog hop is the Christmas Chandelier. Even though, I chose to use it for a Christmas card but it would be great for Halloween or New Years'. It might be a little hard to see but after I printed my image, I colored over the chandelier chains or links with a silver sparkle jelly roll pen. The DSP is actually from the DCVW 'Safari Kids' matstack. I like the glittery dots and thought the colors worked well for a holiday card.

Have a great weekend! Time to hop over to see the Jazzy Tenia.

Recipe for Shoe Card:
Image: Shoe 7 (The Digi Shack)
Paper: Chocolate Chip textured, WW, Autumn Meadows DSP (SU!)
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caramel (SU! Markers)
Accessories: Chocolate Chip 15/16' satin ribbon (SU!), Bow-Easy

Recipe for Chandelier Card:
Image: Chandelier (The Digi Shack), Teeny Tiny Wishes (SU!)
Paper: Real Red textured, Tempting Turquoise, WW (SU!), DSP-Safari Kids Mat Stack (DCWV)
Ink: Silver Glitter Jelly Roll pen (Sakura), Crushed Curry (SU! marker), Real Red (SU!)
Accessories: Top Note Die (SU!), Modern Label punch (SU!) red gemstones (the Paper Studio)

DRS- Featured Friday Designer

Here are the cards I made for DRS Designs as this week's Featured Friday Designer. {pinch me!! because even though it has been several weeks since Cathy contacted me, I still can't believe it}.
I chose to focus my Friday around the upcoming holidays. I jibber-jabbered on an earlier post how much fun I am having creating cards for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. And preparing for the DRS Friday was no exception. But really...who wouldn't have fun with these fantastic rubber stamps?!

The Halloween card is 6X6 Brazzil textured black card stock as a base. The purple panels are both 4X4, and the upper square panel is covered with DSP. I love these brads, but I have lost the manufacture information, but I doubt that they are available anymore as they were on closeout when I picked them up a few years ago. The thing I like most about this card is the sentiment from DRS Designs. I plan to make these for my team at work...they know I love chocolate and sometimes...well...the other part of the sentiment fits too.

The Thanksgiving card is a gate fold. I really enjoyed coloring this beautiful Autumn bouquet. I am going to love having this stamp in my collection. I've already thought about some different color variations for the bouquet. I used the Scor-Pal for scoring the card stock which made it super easy. On the grid across the top, there are two dots- one at 2 1/8 and one at 6 3/8; these are the scoring lines for a gate card using 8 1/2 paper. Scor-Pal has lots of tutorials including the gate fold card; you can find it here: Scor-Pal boxes and cards

And the last and final card that I made for the DRS Designs Featured Friday Stamper was the Christmas card using the Dryer Sheet technique. You can find a photo tutorial on Splitcoaststampers. You will need a Zyron machine or a spray adhesive but it is not difficult at all. Basically you stamp your image (let dry), run it through the Zyron so the sticky side is on the image, place a used dryer sheet on top (trim sheet to cardstock size) and then add glitter. The glitter sticks to the sticky image and dryer sheet. It gives a soft, glittery focus. I really love the look of the Dryer Sheet technique for holiday cards or snow card & love it because the glitter really stays put.

All the recipes are below. Have a great Friday and weekend!

Recipe for Priceless Halloween:

Images: Witch Accessories-K154, Priceless Halloween-G433 (DRS Designs)
Cardstock: Blackbird (Brazzill), Lavender Lace, Basic Black, Green Galore, Whisper White (SU!), DSP-Trick or Treat Polka Dots (the Paper Studio)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento); SU markers: Lavender Lace, Basic Gray, Green Galore, Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa, Crushed Curry
Accessories, Brads- cats and bats (unknown source); ribbon (the Paper Studio)

Recipe for Autumn Beauty:
Images: Pumpkin Bouquet M684, Beauty of Autumn D704 (DRS Designs)
Paper: Crushed Curry, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White, DSP- Razzleberry Lemonade (SU!)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento), Pumpkin Pie, Only Orange, Yoyo Yellow, Crushed Curry, More Mustard, Really Rust, Dusty Durango, Ruby Red, Rose Red, Mellow Moss, Creamy Caramel, Soft Suede
Accessories: Bender Pen, Hodgepodge Hardware (SU!) Brads (Angelica by Marcella) Ribbon-Striped (Michaels), Pumpkin Pie (SU!), Scallop Circle Nestabilities (Spellbinders)
Technique: Gate Fold

Recipe for the Christmas Night card:
Stamps: Traveling Afar L673 (DRS Designs)
Paper: Night of Navy, Bravo Burgandy, WW
Ink: Night of Navy'
Accessories: Texturz Plate 1, Large silver Grommet, 5/8' Bravo Burgandy Grosgrain Ribbon, 1/2' Night of Navy Grossgrain ribbon (SU!); silver brads (Making memories), oval scallop nestabilities (Spellbinders), Zyron

Froggie & Bow-Easy

Another wonderful inspirational challenge is on Splitcoaststampers today. Challenge 181 is to use the purses from the website LittleOddForest as inspiration for a card. I chose this purse; and here is a look at some buttons with the little froggies.

The stamp and epoxy accents are from Colorbok which were purchased at Michaels. I loved the images in the set but can't say I am too impressed with the clear stamps stamping ability. The stamp did not pick up the ink evenly; thus the image was stamped 3 times before a solid image was produced. Trying craft ink did not result in improvement. Roughing up the stamp by using an pencil eraser to increase the porousness of the acrylic did not make a difference either. But the images are so trendy fun. {and I love that!}

On the plus side, the acrylic stamp was easy to place for multiple imaging. The stamp set was fairly inexpensive especially with a 40% off coupon. Another cool thing that I discovered by serendipity was to use the acrylic stamp as a mask. After the frog was stamped, I decided to use the spritzer tool to add some orange to the background. I simply laid down the acrylic stamp and spritzed away. Wow- that is a lot easier than stamping and cutting. All in all, I'm glad I bought the set, but now I'll be more selective in its use.

I used my brand new Bow-easy for the first time. There is a good Bow-easy video on YouTube. There are several stamping online companies selling the bow-easy but I opted to buy direct from the maker on e-Bay & I received free, super fast shipping.

Recipe:
Stamp: Friendly Frrest (Colorbok)
Paper: Tangerine Tango, Green Galore, Tempting Turquoise, WW, DSP- Frosty Days (08-09 holiday mini)
Ink: Green Galore, Only orange
Accessories: White uniball pen, Friendly Forest epoxy accent, Tempting Turquoise ribbon
Technique: Paper piercing using Tim Holtz's Retractable Craft Pick (tonic) {more on that product another day;)}