Blogger's Challenge #41 - Layout Challenge

Finally some stamping time just for fun! I fell in love with the Billy & Lilly stamps from Pink Cat Studio after seeing them on Lauren's blog. My Billy stamps just came yesterday and I couldn't wait to ink them up!

The blogger's challenge this week was to use the long note layout on page 65 of the Stampin' Up Spring/Summer Collection. I didn't have any long notes, so I made my own out of a 12x12 sheet of Tempting Turquoise. All of the paper and stickers I used came from the retired Party Pieces Simply Scrappin' Kit, except for Billy himself. I stamped Billy on watercolor paper and then cut him out and popped him up with dimensionals.

I hope you enjoyed my entry this week. Don't forget to check out the other Blogger's challenge entries! You can find links to all of their sites in my sidebar.

Stamps: Billy Plate 1 from Pink Cat Studio
Ink: Palette Noir Hybrid Ink
Paper: Watercolor Paper, Party Pieces Simply Scrappin' Kit
Accessories: Bold Brights Brads
Tools: Aquapainter, Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Stampin' Dimensionals

Blogger's Challenge #36

This week's blogger's challenge was to use the layout on page 44 of the Spring Summer Catalog - "with deepest sympathy".

The baby's baptism is scheduled for April 20, so I've started thinking about making invitations. Mind you, his baby announcements are not done yet, but why should that stop me? Perhaps because he has some sort of sensor that wakes him up from his nap the instant I walk into my stamp room?

At any rate, I thought this layout was simple enough that I should be able to whip up 20 invites in the next week or so. If I get the cutting and stamping done, I can assemble them anywhere.

For this card, I wanted to use the christening dress from the retired stamp set Buggies & Booties. In fact, I bought this stamp set when it was retiring so that I could make my future children's baptism invites. ;)

I was inspired by Heather Nichols to stamp on kraft cardstock instead of white. It's a very different look and I think it makes the card look a little more vintagey.

I tried just stamping the dress and sentiment with white ink, but it didn't show up enough so I had to emboss it. (For the record, I tried Stampin' Up Craft white, Brilliance White and Palette Noir new canvas and none of them were bright enough.)

I did sponge some Brilliance white ink onto the embossed panel to make it pop a little more.

That's pretty much it. I'm hoping to become a regular blogger's challenge member again, but to be honest it might take me a couple more weeks to get up to snuff. I literally threw this card together in 20 minutes before my little guy noticed I was gone.

Stamps: Buggies & Booties, Hugs & Wishes
Ink: VersaMark, Brilliance white ink
Paper: Confetti Tan, Blue Bayou, Bravo Burgundy
Accessories: Mellow Moss Taffeta ribbon, Brass Hodge Podge Hardware, white detail embossing powder
Tools: Cuttlebug, Textile Texture embossing folder, sponge

Blogger's Challenge #27 - Inspiration Challenge

Long time no see, right? It's been a while since I've participated in a blogger's challenge, but I was really excited about this one.

It's inspiration week on the blogger's challenge group! This week I wanted to make a name frame for my baby's nursery. I was inspired by the stars on the Pottery Barn Kids curtains that we hung in his room. If you click the link above, you'll see that the stars on the sheers are in gingham prints in certainly celery, so saffron and ballet blue.

So, for the baby's name frame I wanted to recreate these applique stars. I started by cutting out various sized stars with the cuttlebug 2x2 stars dies from white chipboard coasters. Then I smooshed each star on my whisper white craft ink pad to make them even whiter. After they were dry, I inked up the gingham print from the retired Stampin' Up! set Wonderful Weaves with craft ink and pressed each star onto the stamp. I made a bunch in all three colors so that I could pick and choose which sizes and colors to use when I was ready to make the frame.

For the frame itself, I stamped the baby's name in ballet blue craft ink onto whisper white card stock using the large monogram alphabet from A Muse. Then I simply glued some of the stars down around his name using mini glue dots. This is probably the most simple name frame I've made, but it is exactly what I wanted for his room. (Here's a link to all the other frames I've made over the years.)

Sorry I didn't post a picture of the whole thing. We've decided not to post the baby's name on the internet so you'll have to be satisfied with just the first letter. ;)

I hope you enjoyed my entry this week. Don't forget to check out the other Blogger's challenge entries! You can find links to all of their sites in my sidebar.

Stamps: Wonderful Weaves, monogram alphabet by A Muse
Ink: Ballet Blue craft ink, Certainly Celery craft ink, So Saffron craft ink, Whisper White craft ink
Paper: Whisper White
Accessories: white chipboard coasters, Mini glue dots
Tools: Cuttlebug, Stars 2x2 dies

Blogger's Challenge Week 21

I'm back! Sorry for the long absence, but things got a little busy here. First we took a little trip to Las Vegas to celebrate my husband's 30th birthday. Then the next weekend I threw him a surprise party and had 30 people over. I thought things would calm down after that, but my family threw me a surprise baby shower the next weekend. Needless to say, I'm just now getting caught back up.

So to get back into the swing of things, I decided to tackle 3 challenges at once.

First, this is for this week's blogger's challenge which was a color combination. We were to use pumpkin pie, chocolate chip, old olive and brocade blue on the card. That was easy enough!

Second, I signed up for another weekly challenge in one of my yahoo groups. This week the challenge was to use our cuttlebugs. I jumped on this challenge because I don't use mine enough but I absolutely love it. I used two embossing folders on this card - the spots & dots folder and the tiny bubbles folder. It's hard to tell from the picture, but I actually used the wrong side of the spots & dots card stock to give a debossed look.

Finally, the layout for this card was from this week's sketch challenge on splitcoast - SC150. As you can see, I rotated the sketch 90 degrees to accommodate the bella.

I hope you enjoyed my entry this week. Don't forget to check out the other Blogger's challenge entries! You can find links to all of their sites in my sidebar.

Stamps: winobella from Stamping Bella, sentiment and skinny oval bl sm from A Muse Art Stamps
Ink: Palette Noir Black, Brocade Blue
Paper: Watercolor Paper, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Brown polka dot ribbon from American Crafts, Stamping Dimensionals
Tools: Round Tab punch, Blender Pens, Spots & Dots Embossing Folder, Tiny Bubbles Embossing Folder, Copic Spica Glitter Pen, Glaze Clear Gelly Roll Pen

Blogger's Challenge Friday #17

It's inspiration week on the blogger's challenge group!

In addition to being a stamper, I am a knitter and I'm almost done knitting a log cabin blanket for the baby. The pattern is from Mason Dixon Knitting and that leads me to this week's inspiration. I absolutely love the Buncha Squares blanket that Kay finished up this summer which was inspired by Denyse Schmidt's fabric quilt design called What A Bunch of Squares. Click this link to check out Kay's beautiful afghan. Since knitting this blanket would probably take me 1-2 years, I decided to be inspired in the stamp room instead. ;)

I love the large spans of natural colored yarn in the blanket that is sprinkled with the squares of fresh colors. I chose the colors groovy guava, certainly celery, soft sky and always artichoke from one of the squares as my inspiration. I also decided to run my layers through the cuttlebug to bring some more squares into the design. The Traffic Jam embossing folder especially reminded me of the Buncha Squares blanket.

The layout is this month's dirty dozen fan club on splitcoast stampers. (The link won't work if you aren't a member of the fan club. Sorry!) After I picked this layout, I wasn't sure what to put in the focal circle. Then when I was sitting at my stamp table, I just grabbed this leftover scalloped circle from the mass-produced thank you notes of a couple weeks ago. It was perfect -- even the right color. That means this card took a total of 5 minutes to put together and that included digging out my cuttlebug! Not too shabby!!

I hope you enjoyed my entry this week. Don't forget to check out the other Blogger's challenge entries! You can find links to all of their sites in my sidebar.

Stamps: Seeing Spots, Short & Sweet
Ink: Palette Noir Black, Soft Sky
Paper: Ivory Naturals, Whisper White, Soft Sky, Groovy Guava, Certainly Celery, Basic Black
Accessories: Always Artichoke grosgrain ribbon, Pop-up glue dots
Tools: 1 3/8" circle punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, scallop circle punch, Blender Pens, Traffic Jam Embossing Folder, Tiny Mosaic Texture Embossing Folder

Blogger's Challenge Friday #16

This week's challenge was to make an ornament. I loved making these ornaments for convention so much, that I figured I'd have another go with the Ranger Memory Frames. So the only decision left was what to stamp?

When we got married, one of my favorite wedding gifts was a set of twelve ornaments that Eric's aunt & uncle had collected for us. Tucked away with the ornaments was a sheet of paper explaining their significance. Here's what it said:

According to the old German tradition, the tree of a newlywed couple should include these twelve ornaments to ensure blessing and happiness for their life together.

An Angel - God's Guidance in the Home
A Rose - Beauty and Affection
A Rabbit - Hope and Faith
A Teapot - Hospitality
A Pine Cone - Motherhood and Fruitfulness
A Santa - Unselfishness and Goodwill
A House - Shelter and Protection
A Fruit Basket - Generosity
A Bird - Happiness and Joy
A Flower Basket - Good Wishes
A Heart - True Love
A Fish - Christ's Blessing

When my best friend from college got married this June, we gave her a set of ornaments that we had been collecting for a couple of years. I wanted the ornaments to be all different styles. But, a few of the twelve were very difficult to find and we had to settle on whatever we came across. Two of these hard finds were the fruit basket and the flower basket.

So, wouldn't it be great to be able to stamp these ornaments instead? Then they would be perfect -- just what I envisioned. That was the inspiration for my blogger's challenge entry this week.

I hope you enjoyed my entry this week. Don't forget to check out the other blogger's challenge entries! You can find links to all of their sites in my sidebar.

Stamps: Basket Full of Fun
Ink: Palette Noir Black Ink
Paper: Watercolor Paper
Accessories: Red Gingham Ribbon, Ranger Inkssentials Memory Frames, Ranger Inkssentials Memory Glass
Tools: Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Aquapainter

Blogger's Challenge Friday #15

Pregnancy brain strikes again! I accidentally posted my blogger's challenge project on Saturday. Don't even ask how I made that mistake, but it's par for the course in my life right now.

This week's challenge was to make a project using orange and black. My 2-5-7-10 box fit the bill perfectly. Since my fundraiser Christmas card class is tomorrow, I won't have time until Sunday to make a different project.

In the meantime, don't forget to check out the other blogger's challenge entries! You can find links to all of their sites in my sidebar.

Blogger's Challenge Friday #14

This week's challenge was to use spectrum pads on our project. In the past, I've brayered glossy card stock with spectrum pads to make backgrounds, but today I wanted to try something different.

The first card I made was with the Cotton Candy Spectrum pad. It is monochromatic, so I thought I'd make the whole card monochromatic. This card is 4" x 4" square.

This card was super simple to make, but it left me feeling kind of blah.

Stamps: Season of Joy
Ink: Regal Rose, Cotton Candy Spectrum Pad
Paper: Whisper White, Regal Rose, Rose Red
Accessories: Pink Taffetta Ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals

So, I tried again. This time I pulled out my old Twist spectrum pad. The colors in this pad are Yo yo Yellow, Green Galore, Glorious Green, Ballet Blue, and Lovely Lilac. I stamped the large flourish from Doodle This onto a 4 1/4" by 4 1/4" square white card. Then I stamped two daisies from this set onto scrap card stock and cut them out.

To color in the images, I simply took a clean aquapainter and pulled the colors from the outline of the stamp into the center of each petal. Super simple and it allows you to use your spectrum pads with line stamps. This technique reminded me of those Paint with Water coloring books where you would just wipe the wet paintbrush over the paper and it would color itself in.

To finish the card off, I added a little glitter and popped up the flowers with dimensionals.

I hope you enjoyed my entries this week. Don't forget to check out the other Blogger's challenge entries! You can find links to all of their sites in my sidebar.

Stamps: Doodle This
Ink: Twist Spectrum Pad
Paper: Whisper White
Accessories: Dazzling Diamonds, Stampin' Dimensionals
Tools: Two-way glue pen, Paper Snips

Blogger's Challenge Friday #13

My parents came over for the weekend to help us with some household projects. Eric & my dad finished demolition on the part of the deck that used to connect to our pool and my step-mom did the primer coat on the baby's room. (It's kind of a cross between Bashful Blue and Soft Sky.)

At any rate, that is why I am late with this week's blogger's challenge. We were supposed to make a project using some kind of embossing. For this card, I decided to use both heat embossing and dry embossing.

The layout for this card came from Lauren Meader's Saturday sketch challenge #14. I've loved all the samples on splitcoast of black butterflies on colorful card stock, so I decided to incorporate that into the challenge as well.

The patterned paper is from a really old Die Cuts with a View stack. I just punched out three different colored 1 3/8" squares and then embossed the butterflies on each one with black embossing powder. I also embossed the sentiment in the lower left corner.

As a final touch and to balance the design, I dry embossed three little flowers in the right corner of the card. (It's a little difficult to see in the picture.)

I will be mailing this card out to Victoria, a teenager that is battling cancer right now. Her teacher is trying to collect a card from every state in the country for Victoria. I am more than happy to represent Connecticut. For more information on how you can help, visit Lauren's blog.

I hope you enjoyed my entry this week. Don't forget to check out the other Blogger's challenge entries! You can find links to all of their sites in my sidebar.

Stamps: Priceless, Curvy Verses
Ink: VersaMark
Paper: Basic Black, Papertrey Select White Card stock, Patterned paper from Die Cuts with a View
Accessories: Black Gingham Ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals, Black Embossing Powder
Tools: Priceless Classy Brass Template, Embossing Stylus, Light Table, 1 3/8" circle punch, Heat Tool

Blogger's Challenge Friday #13

This week's challenge was to use embossing (dry or heat) on a card. I haven't had a chance to sit down in my stamp room this week though, so my challenge will be a little late. Check back on Sunday.

In the meantime, don't forget to check out the other Blogger's challenge entries! You can find links to all of their sites in my sidebar.

Blogger's Challenge Friday #12

Today was a really bad day. I didn't sleep well last night and felt pretty miserable because of it. On days like this, I most look forward to going home and putting on my favorite jammies (pictured at right).

That leads me to this week's blogger's challenge. We were supposed to find inspiration for a card from something in our non-stamping lives. I decided to be inspired by my jammies.

To make the main stamped panel, I started with a piece of glossy white card stock and brayered cool caribbean classic ink over the entire piece. Once this dried, I stamped the circles with VersaMark and then embossed with clear embossing powder. Finally, I brayered over the entire panel with night of navy classic ink. It came out a little more speckled than I would have liked because the embossing powder kept sticking. I probably didn't let the cool caribbean ink dry completely.

I hope you enjoyed my entry this week. Don't forget to check out the other Blogger's challenge entries! You can find links to all of their sites in my sidebar.

Stamps: Seeing Spots, Polka Dots & Petals
Ink: Palette Noir black, Cool Caribbean, Night of Navy, VersaMark
Paper: Cool Caribbean, Night of Navy, Whisper White, Glossy White
Accessories: retired Flirty Ribbon Originals (ric rac), Clear Embossing Powder
Tools: 1 3/8" circle punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, scalloped circle punch, Heat Tool

Blogger's Challenge Friday #11

This week's challenge was to use the layout of the star card on page 12 of the Holiday Mini Catalog as our inspiration. As you can see, I didn't stray too far from the original.

I also need lots of thank you cards, so I hope you won't get too tired of seeing them. ;) The meta challenge for me was to make a boy card. I might as well start now, right?

The patterned paper here is from the Chatterbox Playhouse collection (specifically the Swing Stripe & the Cowboy Paisley patterns). This paper is double sided, so the textured red & yellow papers are just the back side of the stripe & paisley papers. I think this paper is discontinued because I got it on clearance at Michaels a few months ago and can't find it on the Chatterbox website now.

I adhered the paper to the chipboard star (from the On Board Accents) with an anywhere glue stick and then sanded the edges using the sanding blocks. This method has the benefit of being easier than cutting out the paper in the exact shape of the chipboard and it gives a nice distressed look around the edges.

I used the thank you from Seeing Spots and the diaper pin from Short & Sweet again on this card. I think it makes a cute combo.

I hope you enjoyed my entry this week. Don't forget to check out the other Blogger's challenge entries! You can find links to all of their sites in my sidebar. Look closely because we have some new members. :)

Stamps: Seeing Spots, Short & Sweet
Ink: Palette Noir black, Brocade Blue marker
Paper: Brocade Blue, Cranberry Crisp, River Rock, Playhouse paper by Chatterbox
Accessories: Twill Ribbon from American Crafts Elements: Tan Essentials, On Board Accents from Stampin' Up!, Earth Elements brads, Pop-up glue dots
Tools: 1 3/8" circle punch, 1 1/4" circle punch

Blogger's Challenge Friday #10

This week were were challenged to use the layout on page 92 of the Fall/Winter Collection (Circus Train) as our card inspiration. We did not have to make a pocket card, we just had to use the layout with the 5 squares.

This was a tricky challenge for me. I'm not good at randomly positioning things and having them look good. I'm more right brained -- orderly I guess. Anyway, trying to line up the squares just like the sample was making my head explode, so I decided to rotate the card 90 degrees and attempt my own pattern with the squares.

Aside from my personal issues with randomness, this was a really easy card to pull together. The color combination (groovy guava, ruby red, blush blossom and river rock) is from the In Color Combos sheet from Stampin' Up! It's like a color coach supplement with all the new colors for this year.

I hope you enjoyed my entry this week. Don't forget to check out the other Blogger's challenge entries! You can find links to all of their sites in my sidebar.

Stamps: Priceless
Ink: Groovy Guava, Ruby Red, River Rock
Paper: Groovy Guava, Ruby Red, River Rock, Blush Blossom, Confetti White
Tools: Crafter's Toolkit, 1 3/8" square punch

Blogger's Challenge Friday #9

Sorry for being a day late with the challenge. My real job has been claiming my evenings this week which leaves no time for stamping. I don't think it's going to get better this week, so next Friday's challenge might be the next time you hear from me!

Anyway, this week's challenge was to get punchy! We were supposed to make a card using punches as our focal point.

For this card, I used the Small Tag punch and the Key Tag punch to make tombstones. I also used the Ticket Corner punch to make a couple 1 1/2" squares into tombstones as well. The moon was punched with the 1 1/4" circle punch. Too much fun!

For the tombstones, I sponged them with the same color ink as the card stock to make them look older. I also debossed the "RIP" on each tombstone to make them look carved.

This card will fit in the small open ended envelopes. It measures 6 1/2" by 3 1/4".

I hope you enjoyed my entry this week. Don't forget to check out the other Blogger's challenge entries! You can find links to all of their sites in my sidebar.

Stamps: Booglie Eyes, Rough Edges Alphabet
Ink: Going Gray, Basic Gray, Stazon Jet Black
Paper: Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Barely Banana, Watercolor Paper, Going Gray, Basic Gray
Tools: 1 1/4" Circle punch, Small Tag punch, Key Tag punch, Ticket Corner Punch, Paper Snips, Aquapainter, Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Embossing Stylus

Blogger's Challenge Friday #8

This week's challenge was to find inspiration for a card from something ordinary like clothing or a pattern in a rug. I found that when you are actively looking for inspiration it is a lot harder to find. But, I did manage to stumble upon this diaper bag from lexie barnes. I own a lady b and a flo knitting bag from her that I absolutely love. I also picked up one of these darling diaper bags off ebay for half price. (Mine is a different print though.) Anyway, I thought this bag was super cute and would be perfect for this challenge.

So without further ado, here is my card. The main panel is glossy white card stock which I first stamped with blush blossom and groovy guava flowers. Since I was planning to brayer over this with old olive ink, I needed to emboss the flowers with clear embossing powder so they wouldn't get muddy. To do this, I simply inked my stamps in VersaMark first, then I inked them in the color dye ink before stamping. This gives the image enough stickiness to hold the embossing powder. I then colored the center of the circles in with markers. After they dried, I colored over them with a VersaMarker and embossed again.

The stems and leaves were inked in always artichoke. Since this is a darker shade of green than old olive, I didn't need to emboss them. The last step was to brayer on the old olive ink.

In real life, the big flower isn't quite that dark. It started raining when I took the picture so the colors are a little off.

The layout for this card is from sketch challenge 80 on splitcoast.

I hope you liked my entry today! Don't forget to check out the other Blogger's challenge entries! You can find links to all of their sites in my sidebar.

Stamps: Bodacious Bouquet
Ink: Versamark, Always Artichoke, Old Olive, Groovy Guava, Blush Blossom
Paper: Old Olive, Groovy Guava, Basic Black, Glossy White
Accessories: Clear Embossing Powder
Tools: Heat Tool, Foam Brayer

Blogger's Challenge Friday #7

This week's blogger's challenge is called "Alter It". Basically, we could alter anything from a frame to a tin. I chose to alter an On Board Art Journal from Stampin' Up! This also just happens to be the Ways to Use it (125) challenge this week on splitcoast. It's nice how that worked out. ;)

I had purchased this journal back in May to record my thoughts and feelings about my pregnancy, but I put off decorating it in case something went wrong. Now that I'm 4 months along, I should stop thinking that way. So this challenge is well timed.

On the drive up to the SSUS Cape Cod retreat in March, Barb & I stopped at the Scrapbook Clubhouse in Westbrook, CT. That's where I bought two sheets of the Stork paper from the Karen Foster Maternity line. It was just too pretty to pass up and it is the perfect paper to cover my pregnancy journal!

I took the two covers off the journal in order to cover them book-style like Carol Duvall always did on her show. I used Royal Coat Decoupage Finish to adhere the paper to the book. I've also heard that you can use Stampin' Up! glue sticks for this. If you'd like me to share some details & measurements, let me know!

I made a tag for the journal using one of the big circle tags from the On Board Accents chipboard. I colored the tag with Very Vanilla craft ink and dried it. Then using my Palette Noir black ink pad, I stamped the my from the retired Stampin' Up! set Phrase Starters. I stamped the 2" x 1" pregabella from Stamping Bella on some watercolor paper and then cut her out and glued her on the tag. I wasn't sure how well I'd be able to watercolor directly on the tag. (Did you know that some of the bellas come in two different sizes?) Anyway, then I stamped the word journal down the side of the tag with the also retired Stampin' Up! set Euphoria Alphabet & Numbers.

I was worried that pregabella might come off, so I smooshed my Versamark pad all over the tag and embossed with Glassy Glaze (UTEE). I did this 3 times to get it nice and smooth. Now I'm not sure if I like the shiny look of it next to the vintagey paper. I might redo that part later.

A little twill tape finishes it off nicely. Now I just need to start using it before the baby comes!

I hope you liked my entry today! Don't forget to check out the other Blogger's challenge entries! You can find links to all of their sites in my sidebar.

Stamps: pregabella from Stamping Bella, Phrase Starters II, Euphoria Mini Alphabet & Numbers
Ink: Palette Noir Black, Very Vanilla Craft Ink, Versamark
Paper: Stork by Karen Foster, watercolor paper
Accessories: Twill Tape, Pop-up glue dots
Tools: Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Aquapainter, 1/4" square punch, Royal Coat Decoupage Finish, Sponge

Blogger's Challenge Friday #6

I know I've missed the last two, but my schedule is back to normal now and I am super excited about this challenge. We were supposed to use the layout on page 165 of the Fall/Winter Collection as our starting point.

I wasn't feeling like flowers, so I pulled out my Booglie Eyes stamp set. Even though I'm not much of a Halloween girl, this set cracks me up. I stamped the spider and mummy in Palette Noir ink on whisper white card stock. I watercolored the spider by scribbling a Basic Black marker on a stamp case and then picking up the ink with my aquapainter. This is a great trick since the Basic Black ink pad is waterproof. I did the same thing with the mummy, but I used the Going Gray marker instead. I just wanted to give his rags a little shadow. As if that weren't enough, I came back with my Stardust Sakura pen and added some glitter highlights.

The pumpkin pie circle was punched with a Marvy Mega Scalloped Circle punch and the smaller vintage violet one was punched with the Marvy Super Jumbo Scalloped Circle punch. I then cut my booglie guys out with the Coluzzle to fit inside the scalloped circles. The circles are both popped up with dimensionals.

I haven't gotten any of the new wide grosgrain ribbon yet, so I settled on the now retired wide organdy ribbon instead. I also used last year's Halloween paper since I still have a lot left.

I hope you liked my entry today! Don't forget to check out the other Blogger's challenge cards! You can find links to all of their sites in my sidebar.

Stamps: Booglie Eyes
Ink: Palette Noir Black, Going Gray marker, Basic Black Marker
Card stock: Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Vintage Violet, Whisper White, retired Halloween designer paper
Accessories: Black Wide Organdy Ribbon, Vintage Brads, Stampin' Dimensionals
Tools: Marvy Super Jumbo and Mega Scalloped Circle Punches, Coluzzle, Aquapainter, Sakura Stardust Pen

Blogger's Challenge Friday #3

I joined the Blogger's Challenge group this week! Our challenge this week was to make a Christmas card using any stamps we wished but without using traditional Christmas colors. I thought I would be smart and combine this challenge with my hostess' make-n-take request of something "complicated". So I chose to try one of Cami's trifold cards.

I also wanted to use my new stamp set Big Celebrations. I know some people find these stamps creepy because the little people don't have faces, but I thing it's whimsical. I just love the idea of little elves decorating the Christmas tree.

So for the Blogger's Challenge, I chose to use Regal Rose and Certainly Celery as my main colors. I also used a little Sky Blue, So Saffron and Close to Cocoa to color in the tree.

Here's a picture of the inside half-way opened.

The little snowflakes are from the Snow Flurries stamp set and are stamped with Regal Rose ink on Regal Rose card stock. I love these little snow flakes so much and was so happy to see them in the big catalog this year!

I also cracked open my Many Merry Messages set that I never mounted last year. I thought the "Jolly surprises" stamp went really well with the Big Celebrations tree.


Finally, I used the Coluzzle to cut the oval opening in the front of the card.

Here's a picture of the whole thing open.

As I mentioned before, my slit punch is busted. So I used the horizontal slot punch instead and threaded ribbon through the whole to tie the card shut.

Don't forget to check out the other Blogger's challenge cards! I posted links in my sidebar to everyone's site.

Stamps: Big Celebrations, Many Merry Messages, Snow Flurries
Ink: Stazon Jet Black, Regal Rose, Certainly Celery, Sky Blue, Close to Cocoa
Card stock: Whisper White, Regal Rose
Tools: Horizontal Slot Punch, Coluzzle, Narrow Celery Grosgrain Ribbon