My Favorite Color Combo

I had decided last night that I was NOT going to play along with the Splitcoast Color Challenge.  I already had a post up (this is my second today!) and I absolutely HAD to get my craft corner cleaned up.  The piles are starting to get high and everytime the cat jumps on the table, they all start to collapse.  So...this morning was dedicated to cleaning.

But, I made the mistake of looking at the challenge - and it's one of my favorite combos ever!!  Suede and Crumb together are perfect and the pop of Melon is just stunning.  I guess I will clean later!!

I looked through recent sketch challenges and found this one by clean&simple that I thought would give me the best pop on the Mambo!

This is the first time that I had used the sentiment.  It's a fairly new set at All That Scraps called Great Greetings by AmyR Stamps.  She has some GREAT sentiments.  This one is particularly nice because it has the large sentiment, plus the smaller tag line and they are separate so you can use different colors.  (Of course, you will have to find your stamp-a-ma-jig to make them line up!) 

I think I can hear some of you thinking, "I'm not getting that set, I can't use my stamp-a-ma-jig."  Not true!!  Here is Stamp-a-Ma-Jig 101.  Left click on it to make it big, then right click to either save it or print it.

• Stamps: AmyR Stamps Great Greatings (at All That Scraps)
• Ink: Stampin' Up Soft Suede, Crumb Cake
• Paper: Stampin' Up Soft Suede CS and dsp, Melon Mambo CS and dsp, Crumb Cake CS
• Accessories: Cuttlebug border embossing folder, Stampin' Up Birds and Blooms Sizzlits (flower) and Butterfly Embosslit, linen thread, misc button

My Dream Birthday

Today is my last day as guest designer over at the Sweet 'n Sassy blog.  You will have to pop over there to get all the details on this card based on my dream birthday!

LIM: A Sketch Challenge

After monogram week last week, Less Is More took pity on us and gave us a nice basic sketch - what a relief!!!

I was born and raised in South Dakota of German/Swedish descent, so I was trained from the cradle that there was one "sin" above all others....but I am now going to sin....wait for it....I am going to brag!!  I like my card!  (Was that too much?  Was it over the top?  Am I too full of myself??!!!)

I have no great reason for liking it.  I've seen the die cut flower with buttons done before - it's certainly not original to me.  There are probably even cards like it already posted on the Less Is More blog (but I never look until I submit!).  I like the freshness of the white, the pop of the colors and I really love the daintiness of the little 4 1/4" square.  It all makes me smile!

Now I am off for an exciting day of emptying out my son's 5th grade classroom!!  His teacher (who will also be his 6th grade teacher) won a $10,000 classroom makeover.  So my husband and I are off to pack up the old classroom.  Sadly, the son for whom we are doing this can't come.  But it's a good reason...both kids are volunteering at Vacation Bible School.  (You'll have to come back later when I post pictures of my 6'2" teenager dressed up like a Panda Bear!)

• Stamps: SU Tiny Tags sentiment
• Ink: only black
• Paper: Papertrey Harvest Gold, Raspberry Fizz, Orange Zest
• Accessories: Papertrey buttons to coordinate with paper, Papertrey flower die, Stampin' Up Tag Die, Papertrey Harvest Gold ribbon, crochet thread, Cuttlebug embossing folders

SCS CAS: Red, Black and White

Todays' Splitcoast Clean and Simple Challenge is to use Red, Black and White.  I had just received an order from Papertrey Ink that included Gracious Vases - an absolutely perfect set to do in a clean and simple challenge!!

I stepped up the simple little vases with a coat of Smooch Pearlized Top Coat so they have a subtle shimmer.  The flowers have a small dot of black Stickles in the center. 

There are two lessons that I have learned from many wonderful cardmakers:

• "Three" is a more pleasing number than two.  So, adding three vases is more visually pleasing than just two vases and I had to have three gems!
• Create visual triangles.  This is completely related to the first point as it simply means you want three embellishments, points of color, etc. at three different points.  This helps the viewers eye travel across the card. After I had the vases and ribbon on my card, it looked unbalanced.  Simply adding the three red gems gave me three points of red color and I had my triangle!!

These are simple artistic principles, but they make a huge difference in any and all cards that I make!

• Stamps:  Papertrey Ink Gracious Vases
• Ink: Memento black and copics
• Paper: black and white
• Accessories: misc black and red ribbon, Smooch Pearlized Top Coat, Martha Stewart glitter glue, gems colored with copics

colourQ Patriotic Glitter Dots

As much as I love the colourQ Color Challenges, I wasn't going to play along this week as the color scheme was very patriotic and summery and I had done all of my patriotic cards for our church card ministry. 

But then I was wandering the aisles of Michaels yesterday and they had their own line of glitter dots (on sale!) - and one of the packages had the PERFECT colors for this challenge!

The Paper Players challenge that came out today was a sketch - and with the three stripes it was the perfect backdrop to this patriotic card.

• Stamps: Studio G small clear set (in the $1 bin at Michaels but at least a year ago)
• Ink: Stampin' Up Brilliant Blue, copics
• Paper: Stampin' Up Brilliant Blue, Tempting Turquoise, Poppy Parade, Bashful Blue
• Accessories: Star punch, Michaels brand Glitter Shapes, Nestabilities ovals

This is my second post for today...

CAS-ual Friday: Getting Edgy

Given that I love clean and simple cards, the challenges at CAS-ual Fridays are perfect for me.  This week's challenge is "Getting Edgy".  Simply add some sort of punches, ripped, or other edge.

I have so many basic border punches, but there is such a trend right now toward big, dramatic edges.  Many companies are coming out with dies or super-sized punches to accomplish that edge.  But many of you already have a tool that works - Spellbinders Nestabilities - specifically the various Labels.  In this case, I took the biggest die from Labels 18.  I used it sideways and slid it onto my panel.  Then I rolled it into the Cuttlebug JUST to the point that the die starts to go under the paper.  (If you keep rolling you will get an impression of the remainder of the die).  Ta da!!  I have a big, dramatic edge!

• Stamps: Our Daily Bread Bird and Butterfly Labels, Daisy Bucket sentiment
• Ink: Papertrey Ink Ripe Avocado, misc markers
• Paper: Papertrey Ink Ripe Avocado
• Accessories: Papertrey Ink Simply Chartruese ribbon, Martha Stewart butterfly punch, Nestabilities Labels 18, Cuttlebug embossing folder

The Joy of Digis

I was playing Words with Friends (basically online Scrabble) with my 10-year old niece out in Washington D.C.  We always chat while we play and she said she was excited for her birthday party today as she and her friends were getting their nails done.  Her birthday is next week and I knew that I needed to make her a card so as soon as she mentioned getting her nails done...I knew what I wanted to do.  But I don't have a nail polish stamp.  A quick Google search of "nail polish digital stamps" and now I have a nail polish stamp. 

If you have never played with digital stamps before - there is a whole wide world out there to try!  And they can often be exactly what you want!

I have covered the entire bottle with Crystal Effects then added a light dusting of glitter.  Sorry this doesn't show up well!

• Stamps: Tiffany's Doodles digital stamps
• Ink: copics
• Paper: Stampin' Up Peach Parfait, DCWV Pocket Full of Posies
• Accessories: Stampin' Up Top Note die, Crystal Effects, glitter, misc ribbon, gems colored with copics

This is my second post today...