Freshly Made Sketches: Hi Love!

I just had a bit of time this morning to play and I wanted to see how each of the new Stampin' Up In Colors looked when stamped.  I've had this banner set for awhile and it hadn't yet seen ink, so it seemed like a good way to see the colors together.  I love the richness of each color and I know that I will use them - but I have to say that they look a lot like past colors.  I guess there are only so many colors in the world!  (I am regretting the splash of sequins but they won't come up without leaving a mark so I guess they stay!)


I was inspired by the current sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.

• Stamps: Stampin' Up Banner Blast, Papillon Potpourri
• Paper: Stampin' Up Blackberry Bliss
• Ink: Stampin' Up Lost Lagoon, Hello Honey, Blackberry Bliss, Mossy Meadow, Tangelo Twist
• Accessories: Stampin' Up Butterfly and Banner punches, Pretty Pink Posh 4mm Sparkling Clear sequins, Hemptique 10-lb white twine

Happy Dad's Day!!

This is my second post today.

Curtain Call and Tin Can Chat is just a post away!

It's Father's Day - and I am just now making Father's Day cards.  That's not a terribly bad thing - my husband and my kids like them totally plain and simple.  These came together very quickly!

I didn't think that I had any Father's Day stamps that were new and trendy.  I had forgotten this fun "Dude" set by Kelly Purkey.  It is totally perfect for my family.  The first stamp that caught my eye was "Too Cool". My husband is not cool and is very proud of that fact.  It drives my oldest son crazy that his dad still has a non-smart flip phone.  At this point, my husband is simply holding on to his reputation - you can see him eyeing our smart phones every time the kids and I easily look up directions, or movie times, or he and I play 7 Little Words as we sit in the car waiting on one of our children.  So I paired "Not Cool" with a die-cut "NOT!".

I wish that I would have done this in brighter colors, but waiting until the last minute means there simply isn't time to re-do it!
Then I was looking at another stamp in the same set - the "Dude" stamp.  My husband hates "dude".  You should have seen the look on the sales clerk at Best Buy recently when my husband walked away from a major purchase after the clerk called him "dude"!  I knew that I was going to use the "dude" stamp since my youngest son has an unfortunate tendency to say dude.  Then I was stuck because I didn't want to use the "NOT" idea again.
I wandered over to my collection of challenges and saw Clean & Simple's sketch with a row of word bubbles.  The light bulb went on!!  My youngest son talks and talks and talks.  It's a sad statement when we sometimes revel in the quiet if the poor guy is sick and not quite so talkative.  I also saw the new challenge at The Paper Players.  It's their 200th challenge and they have a variety of choices for this week.  I picked the first one and did this one-layer card.  This card is totally perfect for the occasion.

Not to be left out, I decided that I had better do something from the pets since they all claim my husband as their favorite owner.  Our huge black and white male cat bounces like a kitten and runs to my husband every time he calls.  If any of the rest of us call, the cat just gives us the evil eye.  We have an older Australian Shepherd and a brother/sister pair of cats.  (Did you know litters of cats can have different fathers?  The sister is a feisty, fairly nasty calico.  The brother is a massive, mellow black and white cat.) They are all slightly overweight so Paper Smooches' Chubby Chums is perfect.  I tried these guys on a variety of colors of cardstock then remembered the Stencil It challenge at Simon Says Stamp. I love the look of just a hint of embossing paste.  It's also Anything Goes at Paper Smooches SPARKS.

I'm going to let my creative kids figure out the inside of this one.  I went with "thanks" because of the number of times my husband has wiggled his thumbs as the cats are squawking to be fed and told them that, since he has the thumbs to open the cat food, they will have to wait.  I guess the pets are thanking him for using his thumbs!
Whew!  And I got them all done before anybody else got up!
Too Cool:

• Stamps: Kelly Purkey Dude
• Paper: Simon Says Soft Navy, Olive
• Ink: Simon Says Olive
• Accessories: Lil' Inkers Stitched Rectangles, Lawn Fawn Alphabet dies, Lily Bee Designs We R Family enamel dots

Dude:

• Stamps: Kelly Purkey Dude
• Paper: white
• Ink: Simon Says Schoolhouse Red, Burnt Orange, Sunshine, Green Leaf, Audrey Blue, Blue Violet, Memento Black
• Accessories: None

Thanks from the Pets:

• Stamps: Paper Smooches Chubby Chums
• Paper: Simon Says Khaki, Smoke
• Ink: Simon Says Khaki, Burnt Orange
• Accessories: Simon Says Diagonal Stripe Stencil, Paper Smooches Chubby Chums die, Paper Smooches Thanks die

Curtain Call Inspiration: Sweet Pea

It's time for a new challenge at the Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge!

The sponsor for this challenge is Sugar Pea Designs!  Sugar Pea provided each of the Curtain Call designers with a wonderful stamp set of their choice and the LEAD of this challenge will receive a gift certificate.

The images at Sugar Pea are darling.  Earlier this year, I got the perfect set for my son's Valentine card - a pizza chef!  I love stamps that you don't see everywhere and this pizza chef was definitely a unique set.  So I was thrilled when I got to go shopping for this challenge.  I knew I needed something with which I could use cute little flowers so I got this charming little girl.

And there's another sweetheart at the other end of the "phone" line!

Aren't they just the cutest??!  I love them because they are cute without being syrupy sweet.  They are a little rough and tumble - you can see them getting into some trouble, can't you?!  
I placed the first little girl in a field of sequin flowers.  Specifically for this challenge, I got a large package of flower sequins and then only ended up using three of them.  (You'll have to come back for the Curtain Call reminder on the 21st because I have a full field of them on that card.)  I also had to give the inside girl a little something special so I pulled out my clear Wink of Stella.  I've had it for quite awhile - since they were first discovered and you couldn't find them anywhere and I looked everywhere and then never used it until today.  I like her shimmery top!

Check out the rest of the design team.  They are all on the Curtain Call blog or you can check them each out here.

Sugar Pea Designs Owner, Wendy Ramlakhan

Amber Kroening

Kim Singdahlsen

Lisa Henke

Sheri Gilson

Sarah Gough

Stacey Schafer

Tenia Nelson

Then stop by the Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge: Sweet Pea and play along with us!

• Stamps: Sugar Pea Designs Tin Can Chat
• Paper: My Minds' Eye Six by Six Blink of an Eye 6x6, Simon Says Stamps Sunshine
• Ink: Memento Black, Copics
• Accessories: Impress Sequin Flower Kit found here, Pretty Pink Posh Stitched Borders 1 dies, Hemptique 10-lb natural twine, Clear Wink of Stella

Catered Crop: Manly Men

It's time for a new challenge at Catered Crop.  We are creating cards for our "manly men"!

On the one hand, we’ll never experience childbirth.
On the other hand, we can open all our own jars.
~ Bruce Willis, on the difference between men and women



I have been in major purge mood lately.  It's a good thing that I get into purge mood sometimes or you would probably find me on one of those hoarding shows.  I love "stuff".  I love books and cookbooks and cooking magazines - purged by half!  I love spices and vinegars and flavored oils - purged.  I love piano music - purged.  A week ago I took my family up to our little mountain condo in Frisco, Colorado, with the only goal being to purge. HALF the stuff in the condo is gone.  (In fairness to my hoarding tendency, we bought that condo when the kids were tiny.  So the condo was full of kid's games and little snowshoes.  All of their snow gear went to Goodwill.  Sadly, my husband and I have also outgrown most of our early outdoor gear too!  There was a lot to purge!)  Clearly, I love cardmaking supplies and I am in the middle of purging.  I virtually never get into my large box of pre-made embellishments so it's in the middle of being sorted and purged.  But when I started thinking about "manly men" I remembered purging the last few sprocket gears from a Tim Holtz package.  I dug to the bottom of the purge pile - and here they are!



Maybe I need to find something else to purge besides my cardmaking embellishments!
"Manly Men" runs for two weeks. Linda always curates a Pinterest board to get you inspired for the challenge.  Then, next Sunday, all of the cards by the design team will be featured for even more inspiration.

I hope to see you with your "manly men" cards!

• Stamps: Neat & Tangled Everyday Circles
• Paper: scrap
• Ink: Simon Says Stamp Khaki, Papertrey Ink Smokey Shadow
• Accessories: Lil' Inkers Stitched Rectangles, Tim Holtz Sprocket Gears, misc enamel dots, Hemptique 10-lb twine

Curtain Call Reminder: Everything is Wonderful

Just a reminder that there's still a few days left to play along with Curtain Call's Something Simple Inspiration Challenge!  All this white makes me happy!

The sponsor for this challenge is Unity Stamp Company. The LEAD of this challenge will receive this package of goodies.

The design team all got an Itty Bitty Stamp set to work with.  I love the sentiment in this set.

I used the current sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.

I hope you are feeling inspired to play along!  The challenge closes at 8 a.m. CST on June 10th.  And be sure to come back for our next challenge on June 15th.  Curtain Call is almost a year old - so there are also some birthday festivities in the near future!

• Stamps: Unity Stamp Company Everything Happens to Be Wonderful
• Paper: Simon Says Fog, Smoke, Slate
• Ink: Simon Says Smoke, Slate
• Accessories: Mama Elephant Femme Frames die, MFT Fishtail Flags and Pierced Tags, MFT Grout Gray button, Hemptique 10-lb white twine, PRetty Pink Posh 4 mm sparkling clear sequins

Reverse Confetti with colourq: Let's Chill

Maybe because we didn't have our air conditioner working until late yesterday, but when I was crafting yesterday, I was having a popsicle craving!  I really do like the Let's Chill popsicles from Reverse Confetti. They are big and chunky...and check out the cute little woodgrain on the popsicle stick. There are also patterned stamps for the popsicle but I just used the dies for this card.  The border and other stars are also from Reverse Confetti with their Oh My Stars Confetti Cuts

This is for the Reverse Confetti Sketch for You to Try.

I just realized that the colors in my card kind of reflect the colors in that sketch!  But I actually was inspired by colourQ. I started out with bright summer colors, but I decided to make it more overtly masculine and thought this week's colourQ was perfect.

If it's summer where you are, and it's already too hot, I hope you like this cool popsicle!  

• Stamps: Reverse Confetti Let's Chill
• Paper: Stampin' Up Bashful Blue, Night of Navy, Tangerine Tango, Old Olive, Sahara Sand, MME Follow Your Heart Be Amazing stripe
• Ink: Stampin' Up Night of Navy, Sahara Sand, Versamark
• Accessories: Reverse Confetti Let's Chill Confetti Cuts, Oh My Stars Confetti Cuts, Lil' Inkers Stitched Rectangles, MFT Stitched Circle Stax, Stampin' Up Heat n Stick Powder, Martha Stewart Fine Crystal Glitter, Hemptique 10-lb twine

Curtain Call: Something Simple with Unity

It's time for a new challenge at the Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge.  We are doing "Something Simple".

photo source: Pinterest

The sponsor for this challenge is Unity Stamp Company!  Unity provided each of the Curtain Call designers with an Itty Bitty stamp set and the LEAD of this challenge will receive this package of goodies from Unity Stamp Company!

I got a pretty little flower from Unity that is absolutely perfect for our "simple" challenge.  It is so sweet with a "wonderful" sentiment.

Here's a close-up of the detail and the sparkle on the flower.  I used a clear Wink of Stella pen to dot on some sparkle in the center - then I added a little more sparkle to the edge of each petal..

I used the current sketch at Freshly Made Sketches.

Here are all of the designers on this challenge working with Unity stamps.

Something Simple Designers

Unity Designer, Stephanie Muzzelin

Amber Kroening

Amy Kolling

Amy Tsuruta

Gayatri Murali

Kim Singdahlsen

Lisa Henke

Marisa Ritzen

Maureen Plut

Monika Davis

Sheri Gilson

Sarah Gough

Stacey Schafer

Tenia Nelson

Tracey McNeely

Stop by the Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge: Something Simple and play along with us!

• Stamps: Unity Stamps Everything Happens to be Wonderful
• Paper: MME Necessities Wood Designer Cardstock 6x6 Paper, Simon Says Fog
• Ink: Memento Black, Copics
• Accessories: Lil' Inkers Stitched Rectangles, PTI Soft Stone button, Stampin Up Basic Gray Taffeta, Wink of Stella clear, clear sequins (Clearly Beloved found at Simon Says)