Featuring Easter

Good morning stampers!  I've got a card for you today.  This is for the Featured Stamper Challenge over on Splitcoaststampers.  Here is the card of BFinlay that I decided to use as my inspiration.  You'll see it was the sketch that I copied.  I tried to do a bit of a modern twist by punching my flowers out with a circle punch and keeping the details simple, like paper piercing around the edges of the circle.  Added a few rhinestones for detail and bling.  This stamp set is one of the currently available Sale-a-Bration sets which you can get for FREE with any $50 order!

Made it an Easter card for the Pals Paper Arts challenge as well.  Hope you like it!

~Kristin

SUO Supplies

Stamps: Sweet Summer, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Colors: So Saffron, Concord Crush, Whisper White, Pale Plum, Always Artichoke

Accessories:  1" circle punch, circle cutter, Basic Rhinestones, Concord Crush ribbon, markers, white gel pcn, paper piecing tools

Masculine Soiree

Masculine Soiree almost sounds like an oxymoron doesn't it?!  Well, it's not.  This masculine-ish card is done up with nothing but Elegant Soiree DSP- a new favorite of mine.  The inspiration for this card came from THIS CARD by al_silver2 who was this week's Featured Stamper over on Splitcoast.  I used her very same layout but changed up the papers and colors. 

Thanks for stopping by today!  I've been painting all day yesterday and today with my daughter- shelves, a bedside stand and a few other "items" for her bedroom.  She's been patiently waiting since Christmastime!  Anyway, we're off to find some new drawer pulls to spice up the table.  Have a great evening!
~Kristin

SUO Supplies

Stamps:  Watercolor Trio (sentiment)

Paper: Elegant Soiree DSP, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla

Ink: Baja Breeze

Accessories: Elegant Label punch, 3/4" circle punch

Looking Forward to Spring!

I think that will be a recurring theme for the forseeable future- looking forward to spring! I went on a two mile walk yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed being outside without feeling frozen. Of course I had on my snowpants, winter coat, neck warmer, hat and ski gloves, but I wasn't frozen! The only thing missing was the sunshine.

Yesterday I had a chance to play along with the Featured Stamper challenge on SCS. This is a challenge I used to join quite often... not sure what happened. I guess my life changed and my Sunday stamping got pushed off until Mondays.

Anyway, the FS for this week is Jovialjudi. I chose this card of hers to use for inspiration. I kept her layout, including the idea of torn DSP for the only layer. I changed the paper, which changed the colors and I used different stamps. Instead of the gems I used two small grommets at the top right and I added some black satin ribbon from the Occasions Mini.

Thanks for stopping by! Tomorrow I'll be back with the Diva challenge for the week (a great color challenge) so be sure to come on back!
~Kristin

SUO Supplies

Colors: White, Black, Real Red, Cameo Coral

Stamps: Flight of the Butterfly

Accessories: Small black grommets, Black Satin Ribbon

Equestrian Christmas

I've borrowed some stamps from a friend of mine who is a horse enthusiast to make some coasters. While they are here I thought I'd make a quick card with a few of them. This is for today's Featured Stamper challenge on Splitcoast. I used to play along with the FS challenge often, but haven't in a long time. This week I chose THIS card by Miss Boo as my inspiration. Obviously I've changed it quite a bit- but I did keep the general layout the same. Nearly everything I've used is retired including all the stamps except the little embellishment in teh croner and on the horse. The ribbon and hodgepodge are both retired as well. Hope you like it!

Thanks for stopping by!
~Kristin

SUO Supplies

Stamps: Equestrian Dream, Bareback, Gifts of Christmas

Colors: Kraft, Ruby Red, Always Artichoke, Sahara Sand, Chocolate Chip

Accessories: Rustic Retreat ribbon originals, Hodgepodge Hardware

Razzleberry & Rub-ons

Not much time to stamp lately, but I was able to whip this one out today. Since I had a few minutes I decided to check out the Featured Stamper challenge on SCS today featuring Dawn L. HERE is her card that I decided to CASE. I basically used her layout and design but changed everything else. Everything is coming in the new catalog except the rub-ons (old Eastern Elegance by SU). The rest is all in the new In Color Rich Razzleberry!

Hope you like it! I am finding that my older rub-ons like these don't work as well once I let them sit too long- I really struggled with the tiny flowers and had to add the rhinestone brads to help hide some booboos! Isn't the white just sharp against that Razzleberry?!!

Gotta run, thanks for stopping by!
~Kristin

Roxy Rocks!

Hello there! I'm back with my first effort at a Featured Stamper challenge on Splitcoast in a long time! I used to play this challenge very often, and now I can't remember the last time I did. Well, since I hadn't stamped since Thursday or Friday I took some well-deserved time today and went crazy. This week Rox71 is the Featured Stamped and I chose this card of hers to CASE. I love the layout she used and so kept mine very similar with the row of flowers dividing the top and bottom portions of the card. I also used a similar color scheme and the oval sentiment. I used my Texturz Plates and the Big Shot to emboss both the white and the black panels for some added dimension, but it is a bit hard to see in the photo.

The flowers are from the Flower Blossom Sizzlit which is new to me. I did them in Riding Hood Red and Cameo Coral with a tiny white flower from the Boho Blossoms punch, and finished them off with black brads.

Thanks for stopping by! I've got more in store for you this week so be sure to stop by!
~Kristin

A Little Bit...

A little bit of time to stamp today... mostly because my DD insisted upon it. I am knee deep into a book that I'd almost rather be reading plus we're leaving town for a few days so laundry should be first priority.

Anyway, today I will be posting a new Featured Stamper challenge over on our Great Swaps blog so I really wanted to CASE my FS first. Becky Carafa, the GSG fearless leader, is our FS this week. She is the brains behind our entire group and is just a treat to have as a cyber friend! Here is the card of hers that I chose to CASE and next is my version, and my DD's version (she wanted to make the VERY SAME card and insisted I photo it on the black stand and that it should be on my blog!). We kept the layout but changed up the colors and the stamps used. I also wanted to participate in this week's Great Swaps Challenge to use one of the sets that will be retiring at the end of July. Here I've used Polka Dots & Paisley and my DD added a sentiment from It's Your Birthday which is also retiring (*sob*).

Well, thanks for checking in. I'll probably be MIA until early next week since I'll be out of town. If it is cold or rainy I may sneak in a post while away if I can!

Stampin' Up Supplies

Stamps: Polka Dots & Paisley, It's Your Birthday

Paper: Basic Gray, Whisper White, Lovely Lilac, Almost Amethyst

Ink: Lovely Lilac

Accessories: Basic Gray Taffeta Ribbon, White Gel Pen

A Great Swaps Challenge... or two (and a tiny bit of "mom" boasting!)

So this week it was my turn to choose the Featured Swapper on Great Swaps and I was excited to choose Lisa Henke!! She and I have quickly become good pals via on-line chatting and encouragement. We will also be roommates for this year's Stampin' Up! Convention in Utah in July! For the weekly Featured Swapper post we ask that everyone checks out the awesome swapper's gallery and/or blog and choose a card to CASE. This card is what I came up with after seeing this card of Lisa's. Here is Lisa's gallery and here is her blog, My Little Creative Escape!

The colors I chose are also inspired by the Great Swaps Group- this week's color challenge was to use Kraft, Certainly Celery and Cameo Coral. I love all three of these colors (I know I am in the minority on Cameo Coral, but I've always like it.) and had no trouble finding a way to use them together.

Well, I'm crazy busy around here lately with ball games, field trips, school field day, big weekend plans with family, parades, more ball games, retirement party, and somehow squeezing my crown molding project in there... then Kindergarten Graduation on Tuesday and the last day of school Wednesday. Phew! I'm exhausted just thinking of it all. Thank goodness we finally got our yard into shape this week and last- all weeding and mulching are DONE! That's a big weight off our shoulders since we hadn't really done much yard work at all the last 2 years with my DH in the middle of his master's degree. Anyway, we can once again feel some pride over our hard work!

Thanks for stopping by! I'm so glad to have you and to see my "hits" increase so quickly every day- what a treat for me! If you haven't already noticed I posted a picture of my 2 little "angels" in the sidebar. They get to be on the same ball team this year so I had to get a picture with their matching uniforms. I'm biased but I think they're pretty cute. :) We're really enjoying watching their season progress this year- it doesn't hurt that they are doing well at 5-0 and they BOTH got homeruns in their last game! Thanks for patiently allowing me to boast a little. I'm done now.

Stampin' Up! Supplies
Stamps: Stitched, Happy Heart Day, Polka Dot
Paper: Whisper White, Kraft, Certainly Celery prints, Cameo Coral
Ink: Cameo Coral, Basic Brown
Accessories: scallop punch, circle punch, 3/16" punch, brads, kraft taffeta ribbon, ticket corner punch

Congratulations Dawn McVey!

Dawn McVey (AKA Dawnsing) was Sunday's Featured Stamper on Splitcoast- yeah Dawn! Her gallery is full of beautiful creations and she is very deserving! Here is Dawn's card that I was inspired by- this time I copied her general layout but I changed up the colors, stamps and even changed the card size to a 3x3. These tiny cards are fun and quick, help get creativity flowing and are perfect for a gift card on a package or gift bag. If you haven't tried one I highly recommend it!

In case you are interested, I used the Color Coach for this card. I knew I wanted to use the tiny felt flowers from SU's Flower Fusion collection and they come in Old Olive, Purely Pomegranate and Pumpkin Pie (such a scrumptious combo!). First I selected Kraft as the card base because... well, it was laying here handy, and it looks great with these colors.

Next I decided on the Old Olive Polytwill since it's still new to me and it matches. This led to using the Color Coach to find Old Olive's "Dyanamic Duo" which happens to be Certainly Celery. (The truth is I initially had a piece of mellow moss there and when it looked barfy with the twill I thought I'd better double check my memory and sure enough I had the wrong greens together!)

As a side note, if you have the Color Coach but get discouraged because it does not include the current In Colors, don't fear, SU puts a color guide together for them as well. I just print it out and keep it with my In Color scraps so it is always handy. If you would like a copy of this color guide just let me know (via comment, PM or email) and I will get it to you!

Well, thanks for stopping by, and be sure to play along with the Great Swaps Girls challenges. We generally post at least 2 a week- one being the Featured Swapper challenge.

Stampin' Up! Supplies

Stamps: Vases in Vogue (retired)
Paper: Kraft, Certainly Celery, Rose Red Prints
Ink: Purely Pomegranate
Accessories: Felt Fusion Flowers, Vintage Brads, Old Olive Polytwill

Featured Swapper: Denise Hinton!

Since I was sitting down to browse Denise's gallery yesterday to find something of hers to CASE due to her being the GSG Featured Swapper this week, I decided to combine a card of hers I LOVE with yesterday's Ways to Use it Challenge (WT165). The only stipulation of the challenge was to use chipboard somewhere- No Problem! My good friend Nicky gave me a big supply of chipboard that she had extras of a few months ago and I've been thinking about this bird ever since. The set also included lots of neat frame thingys too!

Here is Denise's (aka Geekgirl415) card I chose and I decided right away I wanted to use my chipboard bird with it to mimic hers. My layout ended up almost upside down from hers which I didn't plan, but it just worked better that way once I did the stamping. I used her colors, general theme and her layout to an extent! Thanks Denise for the excellent inspiration!

Also, be sure to check out Denise's Blog, Geekgirl's Random Ramblings, she is so fun and very talented! Thanks for stopping by!

ETA: Fixed the link to Denise's card (I hope!).

Stampin' Supplies (All SU unless otherwise indicated)
Stamps: Baroque Motifs, Carte Postale
Paper: Soft Sky, Soft Sky textured, Always Artichoke, Wintergreen
Ink: Whisper White, Always Artichoke
Accessories: Non-SU: Dew drops, chipboard, white satin ribbon

A Beautiful Sunny Day!

Sorry about the last few days of being MIA! I had every intention of uploading something, but I have kept very busy doing other blog related stuff and hadn't really been stamping. I even got a new stamp set on Wednesday that I haven't mounted yet... NO, that's NOT NORMAL for me! Maybe I'll get around to using it today... but it's supposed to be in the mid 70's... decisions decisions.

So the card I did make yesterday is long-overdo for a friend that had triplets about a month ago... I wanted it to be just perfect, full of thoughtful and meaningful details..

Well, I didn't quite get there, but this is what did finally surface: So my story is this, I wanted to symbolize having three babies but also acknowledge that they are individuals (if that makes sense)... so I went in search of a variety of baby stamps and happened to find three (in all different sets) that are all round in nature! Now we're talkin'! I kept the colors all the same but in different order of layers. This card was inspired by Sunday's Featured Stamper, Kharmagirl (her card here). I love her work. Check out her gallery and this challenge here.

Thanks for checking in... for anyone who might have been checking my gallery for more samples of the Build-a-Flower class cards I have posted a few more pictures now. You can go check them out!

Supplies are all SU!

Stamps: Cause for Celebration (current hostess), Riveting (retired hostess), So Many Scallops ('08 Saleabration set)
Paper: Pale Plum, Perfect Plum, Very vanilla, Close to Cocoa prints
Ink: Close to Cocoa, Perfect Plum, Very Vanilla
Accessories: Vanilla EP, circle punches, scallop punch, Style Silver hodgepodge ribbon slide and brads, chocolate twill ribbon, Crafter's Tool Kit

Happy Friday!

I hear there is good weather right around the corner... cross your fingers! (I'm in Ohio by the way, for those of you already enjoying nice weather... good for you... not intended to sound snarky... or was it?! LOL)



So, finally got to play with the Splitcoast Challenges today. Here is one for today's Limited Supplies challenge: What's your color? Use white and only one other color (not a neutral). Fun! My color is Blue Bayou! And crazy as it sounds, I also used TULLE on my card (had to look that word up for spelling purposes)- if you know me I am SO NOT a tulle girl, but found it in my stash (I have no idea where it came from!) and decided to use it. It actually looks pretty cool IRL. Not sure the pictures shows it real well.

This card was also for the Featured Stamper challenge from Sunday featuring Laura (stampnesxtras). No, she didn't use Tulle, but she did use this Pretty Petals background stamp as a focal point- very pretty!

OK, back to work on my swaps... I've taken all morning (and some of the afternoon) off!
TFL!

Supplies are Stampin' Up!

Stamps: Pretty Petals background, Priceless, Warm Words
Paper: Whisper White, Blue Bayou, Glossy White
Ink: Whisper white, blue bayou
Accessories: Styled Silver hodgepodge, Diamond stickles, tulle, white gel pen, DS blue bayou ribbon

Double Whammy Thursday... and Fun News!

So, I still haven't learned how to budget my time so I can not only scan my favorite blogs and Splitcoast , but also have time to stamp something and actually get it posted in a timely manner so any blog readers I might have actually have something new to view! I'll get better at it.

This first card is one I did for the Featured Stamper Challenge which occurs every Sunday. The goal is to find something from the FS's gallery and let it inspire you. The FS on Sunday was BeckyTE. Here is her card that I "borrowed". Actually, I really only used her layout. Hers is so soft and pretty, but I didn't have the same stamps or paper, so this is what I came up with. I tried to get the same look. This is a lot of layers for me, but it was fun!

The other card I'm posting here is the color challenge for Tuesday (one of my favorite challenges) using Kraft, Sage shadow and Orchid Opulence. It is also a sketch from the Fan Club Challenges I've mentioned. Anyway, since one of the new fine Cosmo Glitters from SU is an orchid color I let that be my starting point. The flower is from the set of Sticky Cut letters- quite fun to use! I feel like this is still missing something- not sure what. Square cards are a bit hard for me... Thanks for stopping by to check things out! PS- I like how Amy Sheffer does her supply list so I'm trying something new for you today (thanks Amy!)

Supplies: All SU.

Thinking of You

Stamps: Spring Solitude hostess set

Paper: Wintergreen (retired), always artichoke, soft sky & Naturals ivory

Accessories: Celery grosgrain, Love & Happiness Rub-on, certainly celery, chocolate chip and always artichoke markers

Ink: Blue Bayou (06-07 In Color)

Happy Sparkly Birthday

Stamps: Lovely Letters, Priceless, Happy Everything

Paper: Kraft, Very Vanilla, Orchid Opulence

Accessories: Sticky Cut Letters, Fine Cosmo Glitter, 1" circle punch, scallop punch, white gel pen, kraft taffeta ribbon, white EP.

Ink: Sage Shadow, Whisper White, Orchid Opulence

OOH, and I almost forgot the Fun News! I found out this week that one of my cards will be published in the August issue of Cards Idea Book Series. I'm not sure which card yet, but I'm so excited! This will be my first time being published, and the first time I've ever submitted anything. Might be beginners luck, but I'm willing to try again! And even more exciting, three of my Great Swap pals will also be in the same issue!! Give it up for Krystie Lee, Dawn and Becky!