December Birthdays

I have two friends who have birthdays in December, one is on Christmas Day, the other is New Year's Eve. Having a December birthday myself, I try to make sure that December cards do not look anything in the slightest like a Christmas card. The card above I made for my friend whose birthday is coming up on Christmas. The card base is Island Indigo and the DSP came from the Festival of Prints designer pack. The turquoise glitter card stock and the ribbon are from my stash.
I stamped the Birthday cake from the Pretty Postage stamp set and combined it with one of the Four Frames and then punched it out with the Decorative Label punch. I used label framelits for the Island Indigo & turquoise backgrounds. The picot edging is also Island Indigo.
The card below has a Bone card base, and even though it looks bluer than the first card, it is also Island Indigo. The DSP layers come from both the 2011-2013 Designer Series pack and the Festival of Prints pack. The wavy edging in the center is in Island Indigo and is an EK punch. The stamped image is of the Split Rock Lighthouse in Minnesota. I picked up the stamp at the lighthouse when I visited there this past summer. The image is stamped using Stazon black on the bone card stock. I colored it with markers and sponged around the edge with Island Indigo.
I used the same layout for both cards, with slight variations. Since the card below is for a man, I didn't add any ribbon.

Holiday Hamster

Some friends of mine are really into hamsters. They told me that I needed to find some hamster stamps, so I did. The card base is Garden Green, topped by a layer of Snow Festival DSP. The large scalloped oval is Cherry Cobbler and the scallops are paper pierced. I stamped the hamster once on white, and once on a scrap of brown that I'm not sure exactly which brown it is. I colored the hamster in with markers, cut the antlers out of the brown cardstock, added glitter to the antlers to make them a little "fuzzy" and then stuck them on. Hopefully my friends will get a kick out of him.

O Christmas Tree

I used a plain white base for the card, then embossed it with the holiday frame folder. I used a scalloped oval framelet on the red glitter paper and centered it over the embossing. The Christmas tree with the presents is all one stamp. I stamped it with Stazon black then colored it in with markers. Then I cut the whole image out and added it to the front of the card with dimensionals.

I am adding this card to the Winter Wonderland "O Christmas Tree" challenge.

Christmas Tree for Merry Monday

I love Christmas - that's probably why I have so many Christmas stamp sets! I did the card above for this week's Merry Monday Challenge. I experimented with the telescoping technique, though I think it probably works better if the image takes up the entire framelet. But there are 4 layers to the tree. I used the tree from the Frostwood Lodge stamp set. It's stamped in Garden Green. I added Dazzling Diamonds glitter to really make it "Pop". It's hard to get the glitter to photograph well, but I think you get the idea - all the areas that look a little blue are caused by the glitter reflecting. The DSP is also Frostwood Lodge. In order to make the large Cherry Cobbler scalloped oval, I traced around the largest framelet & cut it out by hand. The sentiment is from the You & Yours stamp set & is stamped in Cherry Cobbler then punched using the modern label punch. I added a couple of glimmer brads for good measure. The polka dotted Cherry Cobbler ribbon completes the card. Here's the sketch from Merry Monday:

Haunted House for Great Pumpkin Blog Hop

It's week 7 of the Great Pumpkin Blog Hop. I came up with this quick & easy little card. I cut the Haunted House image out of a piece of designer paper from the Recollections all-season book. I then framed it with layers of scrap purple & green and attached them to a mossy green card stock. The little ghosts are actually punched with the owl punch, then I cut off the feet & turned it upside down. They are punched from white glitter cardstock. Their eyes are brads that I found at Hobby Lobby.

Snoopy Returns to Halloween Blog Hop

I just had to make another Snoopy card for the Great Pumpkin Blog Hop! It's week 5 of 13 for the hop. I missed last week 'cause I was busy - and frankly out of ideas. I received the new Seasonal Sayings stamp set and couldn't wait to use it. The sentiment at the top of the card is from that set. I inked the stamp with Wild Wasabi  & Pumpkin Pie markers. The base card is Barely Banana. The "pumpkin patch" at the bottom of the screen is one stamp stamped twice - I stamped the image in Wild Wasabi and then colored in the pumpkins with Pumpkin Pie. Snoopy was stamped with Black Stazon and the pumpkin colored in with Pumpkin Pie (which was also sponged around the edge of the circle). The leaves are colored in with Old Olive and Pear Pizzaz. The whole image is outlined with Certainly Celery. The pumpkin colored border is the  orange polka dot in-color paper from the big pack. It started as a 4" circle and then the round border punch takes it down to about a 3.5" circle. The card is topped off with a Lucky Limeade ribbon. I hope the Great Pumpkin thinks this pumpkin patch is sincere. (And if you don't know what I'm talking about, you need to catch up on your Peanuts lore LOL)

Bewitched for Great Pumpkin Week 3

So it's the 3rd week of the Great Pumpkin Blog Hop and I was really having trouble coming up with a card. But what's more Halloween than witches & black cats?

The card base is Daffodil Delight. The witch's hat, broom, cauldron and black cat are all die cut from a Cuttlebug die and then embossed with a matching embossing folder. I used a white gel pen and gold & copper metallic pens on the hat and cauldron. The broom was cut with Crumb Cake & Daffodil Delight card stock, embossed and then sponged with Early Espresso. The cat's eyes are gold rhinestones. The grey DSP is SU Twitterpated and the orange is Poppy Parade from the in-color pad. The cat and the white square are popped up with dimensionals. I used the sketch from this week's Techno Stamper Monday Challenge:

Come join in on this week's Great Pumpkin Blog Hop.

Window card for Great Pumpkin week 2

No Snoopy card this week, I only have the one for Halloween. It's week #2 for The Great Pumpkin Blog Hop! This time I did a window card. The card itself is black with a layer of Tangerine Tango and another layer of Twitterpated DSP. I used my scalloped oval framelets to make the window. I traced around the inside of the top layer with the fine tip of a Basic Black marker to give it a little more dimension. The pumpkin embellishment came out a little dark in the photo, but it is orange. Here's the inside of the card:

The image and sentiment are both from The More the Merrier stamp set. The pumpkins are stamped with Stazon black, then colored in with Peach Parfait & Pumpkin Pie markers to give them a couple of different oranges. The stems are colored in with Old Olive, the leaves are Lucky Limeade. The Jack-o-lanterns are "lit" with Daffodil Delight and So Saffron. The whole image is outlined with Certainly Celery. The sentiment is stamped with Old Olive.

The Great Pumpkin Blog Hop continues for 11 more weeks, come join in the fun!

Great Pumpkin Blog Hop Week 1

For something called the "Great Pumpkin Blog Hop", how could I NOT make a Snoopy card LOL!

I'm sure Terry would have been SHOCKED if I hadn't. I used this week's sketch from Freshly Made Sketches as my inspiration for the card. The basic card is Lucky Limeade cardstock. The Top Note and scalloped trim are Tangerine Tango, the DSP is Twitterpated. Snoopy on the pumpkin is stamped with Stazon Black and colored in with Pumpkin Pie (what else?), So Saffron, Old Olive, Lucky Limeade and Pear Pizzazz markers. Using the 3 different greens added texture to the leaves I think. I outlined the whole image with Bashful Blue and sponge-daubed around the edge with Old Olive. The sentiment is stamped in Tangerine Tango and the pumpkin embellishment is one that I found at Michaels. I'm entering this in both the blog hop and Freshly Made Sketches. Here's the sketch:

Cat-sitter Thank-you

My husband & I have a trip scheduled in a couple of weeks, our neighbor is kind enough to look after our two cats. I used this week's Freshly Made Sketches sketch as inspiration for the above card. The other inspiration came from Sophie and Tucker, our two cats:

Hopefully you can see the resemblance! I stamped "Sophie" with black Stazon ink and colored her eyes with Pear Pizzazz and ears & nose with Blushing Bride markers. "Tucker" was stamped with Peach Parfait and again his ears were colored in with Blushing Bride. Both cats were outlined, and the sentiment stamped, with Marina Mist. The DSP is two pieces from Botanical Gazette - bird cages behind cats just seemed appropriate somehow. I'm not sure what color blue the main card is - it was a stray piece of card stock in the drawer.

Here's the Freshly Made Sketch:

You have until Monday (July 2) at noon PST to submit a card.

Father's Day Guest Designer

I'm happy to be a Guest Designer once again for the A La Card Monkey Challenge. This week, it's a Father's Day card using the following sketch:



That looks like a manly card right? Here's what I came up with:

The ship & anchor are from the Open Sea stamp set. I stamped them with Not Quite Navy craft ink, added clear embossing powder and heat-embossed it. I sponged around the edges with the Not Quite Navy. The base card stock is Bordering Blue, I'm not sure what the navy card stock is called. The DSP is Nautical Expedition. The sentiment is the only Happy Father's Day stamp I own and is punched with the Modern Label punch. The Not Quite Navy button with Cherry Cobbler bakers twine completes the card. Come on over and play with us this week.

Graduation Already?

I wasn't sure that I was going to create a card for this week's A La Card Monkey challenge. The theme is graduation + sketch. I didn't know anyone who is graduating this year and even though you don't have to follow the theme, I just wasn't coming up with anything. Then, in yesterday's mail came a graduation announcement from one of my husband's nieces. WHAT? Seems like she was just born, she can't be graduating from high school already! But she is. Time does fly. Here's my card:

Red and black are her school colors. I used white card stock for the base, with a layer of black, then a layer of Cherry Cobbler that had been embossed with stars. The DSP is from a pack called "School Days" that I got at Michaels. I remembered seeing a graduation owl on Terry's blog last year, so I went over there to see what she had done. I punched the owl out of silver/gray glittery card stock. For his wings I used a scalloped heart punch cut in half. I sponged around the edges with Stazon black to give him a little more definition. The mortarboard cap I hand-cut and added a black rhinestone for the button. I hand-cut the beak, and punched the feet out of scrap Daffodil Delight card stock. I added plastic google eyes, and the diploma is regular paper punched with the 1" square and then rolled and tied with Cherry Cobbler baker's twine. The sentiment is from the Happiest Thoughts stamp set and is stamped in Cherry Cobbler. I punched the ends with the 1" square punch and added Cherry Cobbler Dazzling Details around the edge and two red stars. I topped the card off with some more CC bakers twine at the top.

Here's this week's sketch:


Hope you have a chance to play along this week.

Here's the WWI Flying Ace

As soon as I saw the theme and sketch for this week's Monkey challenge, I knew what stamp I was going to use. Here's the sketch:

With a theme of the "Sky's the Limit", how could I not use Snoopy in his airplane! Here's my card:

The fact that it's Memorial Day weekend seemed to make the choices of color and papers obvious. I stamped Snoopy and his biplane twice, once on white card stock and once on the Bordering Blue card stock. I stamped him with Stazon black. I colored in the circle image with various markers, Real Red, Sahara Sand, Basic Gray, Pacific Point, Marina Mist and traced it with Bashful Blue. Woodstock is also stamped with Stazon black and then colored in with Daffodil Delight. The edges of both circles are sponged with Bashful Blue. I embossed the main card with a folder called Roman Bath. The sentiment comes from the It's Your Birthday stamp set and is stamped in Marina Mist. I chose scraps of various nautical papers for the bottom rectangles to give the card a masculine feel. The circles and the label are popped up with dimensionals.

Snoopy's Pure Joy

The theme for this week's challenge #109 at A La Card Monkey is Pure Joy + sketch. I deliberately left the sentiment off the front of this card - there's so many reasons that Snoopy could be jumping around like that! The basic card is yellow cardstock from my stash with DSP from DCWV Nana's Kitchen. I stamped the Snoopys on white cardstock, traced around them with Bashful Blue to give them some extra dimension (and some Old Olive for the grass under the 1st one's feet). Then I cut them out and mounted them on rectangles of Marina Mist, Cajun Craze and Old Olive. I topped the whole thing off with a little Calypso Coral ribbon.

Here's the sketch for this week:



That elephant is having a blast! Hope you can play along this week.

Guest Designer Gig

I am honored to be one of the guest designers over at A La Card Monkey this week. The theme is "Anything Goes" with this sketch:

Pretty sketch. Here's my card:

I used white cardstock for the base then added a layer of Wisteria Wonder DSP from the in color pad. The images are from the "Pretty Postage" stamp set. They are stamped in Wisteria Wonder, Perfect Plum and Concord Crush, punched with the postage punch then mounted on scalloped squares of WW card stock. The sentiment is from the "It's Your Birthday" stamp set. It's punched with the Curly label punch and sponged with some more WW. Lavender pearls and Rich Razzleberry ribbon finish it off. Come and join us this week.

Blue on Blue

I'm getting in just under the wire for this week's Monkey Challenge. This week the challenge is to create a "blue" card following the sketch below:



Here's my card:

It's blue alright! The card base is Tempting Turquoise. The DSP is Nana's Kitchen from DCWV. The scalloped circles are Island Indigo dsp and card stock. The ice cream is Island Indigo stamped on Tempting Turquoise. I highlighted the ice cream with a white gel pen and also traced around the outside with the pen. I added a blue button and blue ribbon. I even found the "perfect" sentiment "True blue that's you" from the Goody Goody Gumdrop set (which is where the image came from).

Something Borrowed for Monkey 105

I made this card for the A La Card Monkey Challenge this week. In addition to the sketch, an element of the card had to be borrowed from a stamping buddy. My regular stamping buddy is out of town, but fortunately, I had borrowed the leaves and branches die from her awhile back and made several branches out of several different papers before returning the die to her. With that in mind, I had to come up with an image that would work with the branches. I chose the little deer from the Forest Friends stamp set. I stamped him in Soft Suede, added the leaves and branches and free-handed the grass in Old Olive. I added a little rhinestone for the accent in his eye. Here's a close-up:

The DSP is Nana's Kitchen from DCWV. The sentiment is from Pretty Postage and stamped in Island Indigo and punched with the postage punch. The background layers are all Island Indigo. Here's the sketch for this week:

Did Someone Say Cupcakes?

Yep! That's the theme with this week's sketch at the A La Card Monkey Challenge. Sounds yummy doesn't it?
Here's the sketch this week:



And here's my card:

The background is a DCWV paper that has cupcakes and other confections. I layered it with a pink - which may be Melon Mambo, but I'm not sure. I'm also not sure what the blue is - it was in my scraps. I embossed the blue strip with - wait for it - CUPCAKES. The image is from the set It's a Loop Thing. I stamped it with Stazon black and colored it with Bashful Blue and Marina Mist. I added some glitter to the "icing". The sentiment is stamped in Marina Mist and is from the "It's Your Birthday" set. It's punched with the decorative label punch.

Baby card for special friends

Some friends of mine just announced that they are expecting their first baby in November. Seemed to call for congratulations, so I got to work:

The base of the card is Daffodil Delight. There is a layer of a shimmery green and then Recollections paper of little chicks. I cut the ovals out of the green and DSP layers using framelets and attached a piece of white cardstock with the image stamped on it underneath the cut ovals. The image is from the Goody Goody Gumdrops stamp set and is probably the only baby-ish image that I have. I colored it with markers and, to add some depth, I traced around the inside of the scalloped oval with Certainly Celery. The sentiment is from the same stamp set and is stamped in Old Olive, which is also sponged around the decorative label. The corners of the chick paper are punched with the ticket punch and then pink & blue brads are attached (and to the label as well. I also made an envelope for the card with the same chick paper. Since I'll be hand-delivering the card, there won't be an issue with the P.O. lol.

Egg-cellent Easter

I made this card for this week's A La Card Monkey Easter + sketch challenge. The sketch is a pretty simple one:


What a cute little bunny! For my card, I chose a base of Daffodil Delight. Then I added a layer of a shimmering green pastel that I ran through the polka dots embossing folder. The Easter egg and chicks are papers that I got from Michaels and they're separated by a strip of Marina Mist that was run through a different embossing folder. The image and sentiment are from the Eggcellent Easter stamp set. I stamped the image with Stazon black and colored it with markers. I added Dazzling Diamond dust to the chick so he would be "fuzzier". I outlined the whole image in Bashful Blue. The sentiment is stamped in Marina Mist. I chose the ovals from the Ovals Original die, because after all, when you're talking about eggs, what other shape would you choose? lol. I topped everything off with some SU Brights brads and some egg-stamped ribbon that I found at Michaels.

Butterflies and Easter Eggs

It's the first week of spring and only 2 weeks until Easter. The theme for this week's A La Card Monkey Challenge is Spring - and what is more associated with spring than Easter? I embossed a piece of Island Indigo card stock with dots and some Lucky Limeade with butterflies and swirls. I attached them to white cardstock with a bit of Baja Breeze pleated ribbon in between. The sketch (see below) used the Pennant Bigz die, but I don't have that, so I just cut a triangle out of Twitterpated DSP and attached another piece of the BB ribbon. I stamped the image with Early Espresso and colored it with various markers. I cut out the basket and attached it with dimensionals to a die cut flower. The butterflies are punched from the same DSP and the Island Indigo cardstock. They have pearls on their bodies.  Here's this week's  sketch:

I want Candy!

Blog candy that is! It's challenge #100 over at A La Card Monkey, and to celebrate, they're giving away blog candy. Look at the loot:



Somebody this week is going to win all that! I hope it's ME! Here's the sketch for this week's challenge:



Not surprisingly, the theme is "Celebrate!". Here's my card:

I've been wanting to try a pinwheel for awhile, and this seemed to be the appropriate time. I followed the tutorial on Terry Su's blog here. It was pretty easy once I got the hang of it. I used Play Date DSP for the pinwheel and Twitterpated DSP on the rectangle. The card base is Early Espresso and the other cardstock is Daffodil Delight and Marina Mist (I think). The sentiment is stamped in Marina Mist and I added two bright brads. It doesn't show up very well, but there is Early Espresso baker's twine "attaching" the pinwheel to the banner (both of which are attached with dimensionals).

Color / Sketch Challenges

I thought I'd try something new (for me) and do a card that met a color challenge and a sketch challenge. First the card:

The colors are from the Paper Players challenge #86. The challenge is to use the colors Crumb Cake (I used it for the card base and sponged around the image), Pear Pizzazz (in the Twitterpated DSP and the grass on the image), Wisteria Wonder (the floral embossed strip & Snoopy's water dish) and Pool Party (the "rick rack" stripe, the border around the image and outlining Snoopy).

The sketch:

Is from technostampers challenge #212. I'm entering this card in both challenges.

Springtime Flowers

It's time for some flowers for this week's Monkey Challenge. The crocuses are blooming in my yard  and hopefully it won't be long before the daffodils, tulips, hyacinths and lilies follow suit! This week's challenge over at A La Card Monkey (number 99 and counting - only one more week to Blog Candy!) is Flowers + sketch. Here's the sketch:


For my card, I started with a Crumb Cake base, added Tea Party DSP inside and out. Trimmed it in pink to pick up the pink in the DSP. The flower is from the Goody Goody Gumdrop set. I stamped it first in Early Espresso, then colored the stem and leaves with Old Olive, the petals with Bashful Blue and outlined the whole thing with Certainly Celery. The sentiment is also stamped with Bashful Blue and then punched with the Decorative Label punch. BB was also sponged around the edge of the image and the sentiment. I added some Vintage Flowers, a yellow pearl in the center of the flower and a pink grosgrain ribbon to complete the card.

Monkey Happiness

Happiness plus sketch is the theme for this week's A La Card Monkey challenge (#97 and getting closer to blog candy). I started out intending to make a Birthday card, but it didn't end up that way:

As I was combining the Sweet Stitches DSP with the polka dotted ribbon, it just seemed to scream "Easter" more than "Birthday". And Easter is a happy time too, right? It's an end to winter and a welcome to all the newness of spring. I'm not sure exactly which blue the cardstock is, it was in a multipack. I added a layer of white embossed with the polka dot embossing folder. The bunny is stamped with Early Espresso and then I cut him out and attached him to the scalloped circles. I added a couple of buttons for a little added dimension. If you want to play along this week, here's the sketch:

Top of the Morning

I'm honored to be a Guest Designer this week at A La Card Monkey for challenge #97 (only 3 more to 100). The theme is "Anything Goes" plus this sketch:


I decided to make a card for St. Patrick's Day. Here's what I came up with:

There are ALL kinds of green - Certainly Celery (card base and outline of image), Garden Green (image and sentiment), Glorious Green (borders and layer behind the image) and Old Olive (ribbon and sponging around the image). The sentiment and image come from the Pinch Proof stamp set. The DSP is Frostwood Lodge from last year's Holiday mini. The shamrocks are embellishments that I found at Michaels. I heat-embossed the image and sentiment.