Just Us Girls - Sketch Challenge

Hi everyone! I'm going to make this short and sweet. I'm typing this at 11:30 pm Friday, and tomorrow (Saturday) is the Western NY SCS Stamping Event and I have to get my stuff packed and ready to go! It's going to be a long day and I need my rest!

Here is the sketch for today's JUGS challenge that our very talented Maria came up with. I LOVE it!

This was such an easy sketch to work with...not fussy at all and yet there's a lot you can do with it! Here's my take on it.I had this Inkadinkadoo $1 stamp on my table and decided to work with it. I stamped it in Baja Breeze. The dp is Parisian Breeze from SU (retired) and I paired it with Kraft paper. I stamped this woodgrain image (from Cornish Heritage Farms) on it in Sahara Sand. I'm seeing a lot of this image lately! I thought to use it because there is woodgrain in the birdhouse. The sentiment is from PTI's Bird Watching and is stamped in Chocolate Chip on Kraft.

Did you know that JUGs is looking for a new designer? You can read all about it here. We are looking for one more person to join our team. It could be you!

That's all I have time for today. Stop by the JUGs blog to see what's cooking over there! We have Teresa Kline as our special guest designer for May and LeAnne Pugliese as our May Featured Designer. Lovely ladies and so talented, too!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

Inspiration x 4

ETA: I just noticed my first anniversary of blogging is in two days! I thought it was more toward the middle of February! I'll have to pull some blog candy together! Stay tuned!

Ok are you ready for this long post? I don't know what happened to me today, but I was so inspired by the inspiration challenge today over at SCS. The inspiration was a website called Elum Designs and I must say WOW! I made four cards and each one really didn't take long to make at all! I also had a lot of time on my hands today...my DH is off skiing with Brad (his "little brother") and the boy scouts this weekend at Gore Mountain, which is in the eastern part of NY somewhere. So I have been enjoying my Saturday! Well, here we go!

Thanks

This was the first card I did. When I saw the inspiration piece, I immediately thought of this cuttlebug embossing folder with the vines and birds. I took my tangerine tango ink pad and applied the ink directly to the flat side of the folder. I sort of swirled the ink onto the folder instead of tapping it on so I wouldn't get any lines from the edge of the pad. I placed the piece of PTI white paper in the folder and embossed. I love the look, especially the white and tangerine...so fresh looking. I used a rectangular nestie to cut and emboss this piece. I then took a larger nestie and embossed the frame right on the base of the card, placed the tangerine piece inside of it, and stamped the sentiment. I received this stamp with my Verve order. This is what I did on the inside. You'll have to click on the picture for a better view, but I stamped my sentiment on the embossed frame (embellished with a flourish from PTI's Boxes, Bags, and Tags set) and left the other side blank (except for the bird, from a new Inkadinkadoo set) so I could write a message. Really easy card! On to the next card!




From Me to You
I actually used these two pieces as my inspiration for this card. I used the same technique as above for the center image. I used chocolate chip ink and the textile folder with soft sky cardstock. The rectangular nesties were also used again. Once I cleaned off the folder, I embossed a piece of soft sky cardstock for the large panel. The curly label punch was used for the sentiment. I sponged chocolate chip around the edges for more definition. This was the first time I ever made this bow. It's super easy and so pretty, I think! I used SU's chocolate chip grosgrain. I cut a piece long enough to go around the card to the back. Then I cut another piece and made a loop and fastened it with a large glue dot. I cut another smaller piece to wrap around the loop and fastened it with a glue dot as well. The bow was finally fastened to the strip of ribbon with another glue dot. I then added the dew drops. For the inside piece, I embossed just a portion of the left side and then, using the Scor-pal, I scored two lines. I left off a sentiment, as I don't know what this is going to be used for. I love the blue and brown together, don't you?














Butterflies Galore

This is one of my favorites of the bunch. I fell in love with this gift bag when I saw it. I went looking for my butterfly stamps and came across this one from Inkadinkadoo. It's called Patterened Bugs and the stamp is actually one long trail of different butterflies. I stamped it three times in pigment white ink and embossed it with white ep on PTI's aqua mist cardstock. I added the aqua mist swiss dot satin ribbon. Notice the bow? I told you I love that bow! I stamped these butterflies on the inside too in the aqua mist ink. I left off a sentiment on this one as well to use as a general note card. Love these fresh, springy colors! And now to the last one...phew!




Warmest Holiday Wishes
When I started making this card, I didn't think I was going to like it too much. I stamped the Wood Grain backgrounder stamp from Cornish Heritage Farms in chocolate chip on PTI white. Then I originally stamped the sentiment (from SU's retired Holiday Wishes) right over it (like in the inspiration piece) in red pigment ink and embossed it in red ep. It looked blah. So I stamped the sentiment in real red on a piece of white scrap, mounted it with real red, placed the brads in the corners and placed it over the top of the original sentiment with dimensionals. It looked to me like it had been nailed on a tree! I wanted to add something else, so I punched these ferns in garden green with a Martha Stewart punch. I'm lovin' this card. I think I may may more for my Christmas card challenge!

Well, I'm finally done! My fingers are sore from all the typing! Thank goodness I'm fast typer! Thanks for staying with me on this one, and enjoy the rest of your weekend!

I'm Back from Vacation!

Hi everyone! Sorry I haven't posted in a while...there were a lot of things going on! First of all, I was on vacation last week at our cabin. We had a very nice time with our friends. I have some pictures to share with you at the end of this post if you care to peek. Second, my nephew, Kristoff, who just had his first birthday (see this post), had to have emergency surgery last Tuesday. He had something in his little belly similar to an appendix, which they said only 2% of the population has, and it contained acid such as that in the stomache. Well, it ruptured and burned a hole in his large intestine. They took out a 2" section of the intestine and reconstructed it. They also took out his appendix for good measure. He was in so much pain when I saw him Sunday and Monday. Then I was there this afternoon and he surprised us with a big smile! He is doing so much better, eating, drinking, and laughing and should be released tomorrow! Thank God! So I haven't had much time to stamp, except for the card Kristoff's 4 year old brother, Ethan, my other nephew, made for him with my help. I should have taken a picture of it cause it was so sweet!

Anyway, on to this card. I made this for friends who are getting married Friday, 8/8/08, by the Cape Hatteras lighthouse in North Carolina. I purchased this stamp from Cornish Heritage
Farms specifically for this wedding card. I stamped it on white scrap paper in Versamark and embossed it with Starry Night embossing powder...I wanted the *sparkle*. I cut it out and set it aside. Then, using a post-it note, I masked off the top part of white cardstock and brayered the sand with Creamy Caramel and daubed some Chocolate Chip over that for texture. I then took a scalloped circle and using a dauber and Cool Caribbean ink, created the sky. I've played around with this technique before, but this was the first time using it on an actual card. Pretty cool technique and very easy! I then drew in the birds and the grass. The dp is All Dressed Up by DCWV (I love this stack...so many pretty papers and some are glittered, too). The sketch is from today's Sketch Challenge #188 on SCS. I thought it was so cool. The lighthouse in on dimensionals and the entire main image is on dimensionals as well. I used the Swirls cuttlebug folder and black glitter dots to finish it off. I forgot to take a picture of the inside, but I put a strip of the dp in there as well. Hope you like it...let me know! Thanks for stopping by and take a peek at some of the cabin vacation photos!
Recipe
Stamps: Cape Hatteras Lighthouse (Cornish Heritage Farms)
Paper: PTI white, black, All Dressed Up dp (DCWV)
Ink: Versamark, Adirondack black, Creamy Caramel, Chocolate Chip, Cool Caribbean
Accessories: Black glitter dots, cb Swirls folder, Starry Night embossing powder, dimensionals


Vacation Photos

Here are a few photos I took of some of the kids in the pond. Our friends, Tracy and Alan, have a canoe that they brought and the kids loved it! In the canoe are Kyle, Chase, Brad, and Jacob in the water.This next one is a picture of our cabin and everyone having a good time (it's a little dark, sorry).This is Zoe, our friends' Bernese Mountain dog. She is the sweetest thing. Zoe will only go in the pond up to her knees...she is a mountain dog, after all! (Our pond is so blue because John, Kevin's best friend and partner in this cabin, put something in it to kill the algae. It looks so cool!) And this is our Lizzie. She is a Springer Spaniel, and you'll see in the next picture that she lives up to her name! (She also has her "summer haircut"...she usually has longer fur.)Here she is doing a running jump into the water after a softball that someone hit into the pond for her! She's crazy, I tell ya! I've never seen a dog love playing fetch as much as Lizzie!Here's another jump (look how high she jumps, it's hysterical).And finally the big *splash*!Thanks for letting me share my vacation pics! See you soon!