Peace on Earth in Plum

This is my second post today.  It's just a short scroll

down for this week's Dynamic Duos challenge.

I love it when challenges come together!  This week's Merry Monday Challenge is a great sketch but also leaves it wide open to almost anything.  So I thought I'd get some help from Christmas Cards All Year Round which had two options but I decided to go for the non-traditional color option.  Then I got stuck again.  I don't use plum much, so I decided to add in this week's Play Date Cafe - black, white and a splash of plum.

Having said all of that, I'm still not sure about this card.  I was going for elegant, but I'm thinking it's just dark.  But if I'm going to use my wonderful silver glimmer paper - you're going to see it - it's too wonderful to waste!!

Remember the snow on my swing yesterday?  Check out today...

This is Andrew at 7:45 a.m. on a Saturday scraping off a layer of ice before I take him to an 8 hour OUTDOOR marching band rehearsal.  Brrrr!!  

• Stamps: Stampin' Up Greetings of the Season, Ornament Keepsakes
• Paper: Stampin' Up black dsp, Silver Glimmer
• Ink: Stampin' Up black, Perfect Plum
• Accessories: Silver cord, Perfect Plum button

Dynamic Duos: Bold & Sassy

It's bold and sassy week at Dynamic Duos and we are using Tangerine Tango and Old Olive.

I decided that the orange and greens needed to be fall.  Typically in the fall, my cards get less "white" because I love the rich fall colors in the background.  But in an experiment, I kept this very CAS with lots of white space.  Then I realized that one of my favorite parts of fall was the frost on the ground, so I added glitter to the white banner and the pumpkin.  Kind of a strange combo - glittery white and fall colors - but I like how it "feels" - just like fall!!

Be sure to check out all of the other design team cards!
And definitely be sure to check out the details of the search for a new design team - see here.  You have another week to submit your entries.  It's been a wonderful experience - I do hope some of you try for the next team!!

• Stamps: Stampin' Up Button Buddies, Clear Dollar Stamps words (no longer available)
• Paper: Stampin' Up Old Olive CS and dsp, Tangerine Tango CS
• Ink: Stampin' Up Old Olive and Tangerine Tango
• Accessories: Stampin' Up Tangerine Tango ribbon, Designer Frame Embossing folder, Brights Button Assortment, Crystal Effects (on pumpkin), Martha Stewart Fine Crystal Glitter

Hippo Birdie 2U!

I woke up in a strange and unusual mood today.  Perhaps it was because I couldn't have my first cup of coffee on my swing...

Seriously??!!  It's only October 5th!!

So I combined a very elegant color combination from Just Add Ink:

And the challenge from CASology:

And I came up with this fairly strange and unusual card!!

I'm thinking that is how they sing "happy birthday" in a zoo!!

• Stamps: The Alley Way Stamps Tropic Topic, Alphabet Soup, Trees Company (the bird and music notes) and Party Animal (the hat)
• Paper: Stampin' Up Summer Starfruit, Basic Gray
• Ink: Memento black, copics
• Accessories: Cuttlebug border folder, MME Twine

BE Inspired Reminder!

Last week, on The Alley Way Stamps (TAWS) blog was BE Inspired week with the inspiration being these photos/colors/pictures...

I just wanted to remind you that it's a two week challenge and YOU still have time to play along.  It does require a TAWS image, but they have free digis - check out this lovely butterfly from this post.

I took inspiration from the branch in the upper left corner.  It worked perfectly with the new set Trees Company.

That's a little bit of clear Stickles in the corner of each flower so it has a nice shimmer in real life!

• Stamps: The Alley Way Stamps Trees Company, Talk to Me
• Paper: Stampin' Up Creamy Caramel (retired)
• Ink: Stampin' Up Creamy Caramel, Pink Pirouette, Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Papertrey Ink Fine Linen and Spring Moss
• Accessories: corner rounder, misc twine

The Candy Avenger!!

This week's challenge at Catered Crop is Halloween.  Their sponsor is Tiddly Inks.  I have had some images in my wishlist from Tiddly Inks so I thought I would check it out.

Look what I found...The Candy Avenger!!!!


Isn't she darling??  Perfect for one of my little nieces!!

I gave her a little glitter on that mask and on the pumpkin...

The sketch is from Freshly Made Sketches:

And the theme is from Catered Crop:

• Stamps: Tiddly Ink Candy Avenger digital stamp
• Paper: Stampin' Up Eggplant Envy (retired), Doodlebug Designs Haunted Manor
• Ink: Copics
• Accessories: The Twinery Lilac twine, Spellbinders label die

Never Give Up Hope

On the first Wednesday of every month, The Alley Way Stamps has a free digital stamp.  I am particularly in love with this month's - Never Give Up Hope...


Isn't that a wonderful butterfly?  It's fun, but meaningful.  The sentiment that I used came from the TAWS Christmas Magic set.
I used the colors from colourq which were also meant for October's Breast Cancer Awareness month.  (FYI - I tried easily 50 photos in different lights because in real life, the two darker ribbons are exactly the same color - but I simply don't have the photography skills to deal with the different colors reflecting from the different fabrics - sorry!)

I also wanted something a little frilly - that's not normally my style so I relied on a sketch from cardabilities.

• Stamps: The Alley Way Stamps digital freebie, sentiment from Christmas Magic
• Paper: Stampin' Up Basic Gray, Pink Pirouette
• Ink:  Stampin' Up Basic Gray, Copics
• Accessories: Martha Stewart Fine Crystal Glitter (on butterfly wings), misc black baker's twine, ribbon from Stampin' Up and other miscellaneous sources, Queen & Co Twinkle Goosebumps

Clean & Simple Kindness

Today's Clean and Simple Challenge at splitcoaststampers is to use the colors aqua, coral, yellow and white.  I have been thoroughly enjoying using rich autumn colors but this was such a fresh combo, I had to give it a try!

This is a set called Kindness by Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps.  It includes four different sizes of the flowers so could easily be layered up.  In the spirit of CAS, I just created a spray of the small flowers.  There's also coordinating dies - so I cut and popped one flower.  

• Stamps: Sweet 'n Sassy Kindness
• Paper: Papertrey Ink Hawaiian Shores
• Ink: Stampin' Up Cameo Coral, Daffodil Delight
• Accessories: Sweet 'n Sassy Kindness Flower Dies, Papertrey Ink Frame Out 3 die, Stampin' Up  Dazzling Details (on each center)