Clearly Inspired Challenge #6 (Yeah! This one made top 5!!)

Hello Friends! Today I am sharing with you my submission for this week's Clearly Inspired Challenge, a Clear Dollar Stamps challenge meant to inspire and stretch our creativity. If you have yet to check it out, click the CIC link and go have a great time!

This time the challenge is to use: Red, White & Black with an alternate Pink.

Sounds fun, right? Perfect to get you started on your Valentine's projects.

I had the hardest time with this though! It was just one of "those days" in the craft room, I actually stamped the flower 5 times, colored it 5 times and ended up with just one. It took me two days of starting and walking away before I finally got it finished. Phew .. this was a hard one for me! But, in the end, I think it turned out okay. I hope you like it as well!

Details:

Stamps: Peony & Shining Strength (CD Stamps)

Paper: Real Red, Whisper White, Night & Day dsp, Watercolor paper

Ink: Real Red (marker), Pretty in Pink (marker), Stazon JetBlack

Accessories/Tools: Lg Whisper White brads, sm pink brads, word window, modern lable punch, aqua marker, dimentionals, swiss dots embossing folder, lg oval & labels 6 nestabilities 

Kindergarten Valentine's Day

Something was wrong with me today ... I got the idea for the Valentine's cards the other day when I found this club-sized box of fruit roll ups at Target... and today I decided I would "start" on the cards, just cutting the cardstock and maybe stamping the images. Welp, as you can see, I had the problem of not being able to stop once I got started.

I stamped Loads of Love and Boatloads of Love (su) on whisper white cardstock and colored them with my prismacolor pencils.I used the Masking technique to fit the heart into the back of the boat/truck, which is the challenge at the ABC Challenge. Now, I started with doing alot of detailed coloring, then, realizing these are for kindergartners, I forced myself to hold back on the coloring just a bit. I used my Word Window to punch out 24 strips and stamped 12 with the "friend-ship" sentiment from the Boatloads of Love set, and "happy valentine's day" is from Teeny Tiny Wishes (su)

Finally, I simply stapled the little 3 1/4 x 2 3/4" card to the front of the Fruit by the Foot package. All in all, this was a very inexpensive Valentine's project. And it can be as easy as you want it to be. Since the cards are so small, it takes just a few sheets of cardstock, and as much work and imagination you feel like expending on your precious kiddos!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

The Color Dare #53

Hi All! Welcome to another week at The Color Dare! This week its a biggie! This time, the Dare has 5 YES! 5 colors! We hope you can use at least 4 of them, and bonus points if you can use all 5! Ok, so I am not actually promising "bonus points" for using all 5 colors, but it sounded good right? So, without further delay, here are this week's colors : Old Olive, Not Quite Navy, Bordering Blue, Certianly Celery and Soft Suede. Honestly, this one was a bit tough for me because there wasnt that one color pop present, but the more I worked with the colors, the more I loved them and how they played off one another. In the end, I adore this card, and how all the parts came together. I hope you feel the same way!

The Details:

Stamps: 5th ave floral (SU)

Paper: Bordering Blue, Not Quite Navy, Certianly Celery, Watercolor

Ink: Bordering Blue, Not Quite Navy, Stazon JetBlack

Marker: Old Olive

Tools/Accessories: Aqua Painter, Soft Suede ribbon, Dimentionals

Raise the Bar challenge #2 - Gifts -

Hey There! Today I am trying out a couple of new things. First, I changed the saving resolution on picasa in hopes to improve the quality of my pictures. Second, this great new challenge blog, Raise the Bar. This week, the Raise the Bar crew calls on us to use "Gifts that keep on giving", use anything someone has given to you. I used my Prismacolor pencils I got for Christmas from my BFF, Cassie as my coloring medium. And as a "bonus" (giggle), this card is about to be enclosed in a RAK package for Cassie!

Details:

Stamps: How Sweet it is (MFT)

Paper: Very Vanilla, Cosmo Cricket Early Bird

Ink: Stazon JetBlack, Ruby Red

Coloring Medium: Prismacolor & Gamsol

Tools/Accessories: Corner Rounder, Ruby Red small & large Brads

The Pink Elephant #50 - a Sketch Challenge

Hello Everyone! Yesterday, I got the biggest suprise when UPS dropped a package at my door. I didnt remember ordering anything... humm... so I go down stairs to find a stampin up box and the mystery thickens... turns out my dear friend from high school sent me some of the awesomest RAK ever .. Stampin up's new Sending Love Specialty DSP! It is gorgeous, one side of each paper is sparkley! I am so excited about this paper that I absolutely HAD to use it on today's Pink Elephant sketch challenge. And also, I absolutely HAD to use this stamp from the Monkey Love set designed by the lovely and talented Shawne. The actual stamped image is much bigger, but for my project today, I chose to highlight just the love monkeys themselves.

Details:

Stamps: Monkey Love (CD Stamps) Small Script (SU)

Paper: Real Red, Sending Love DSP, Very Vanilla

Ink: Stazon JetBlack, Real Red

Coloring Medium: Prismacolor Pencils & Gamsol

Tools: Lg Oval Nestabilities, Eyelet edge punch, Word window,

Modern label punch, corner rounder

The Color Dare #52

Hello Friends! Welcome to another week at The Color Dare! Before I get started on this week's colors, I want to welcome the new members of the Color Dare design team! You can visit everyone at The Color Dare by clicking on their names/links on the right side bar. Welcome and Congratulations to our new members!
Ok, on to this week's Dare ... Get creative and have FUN with these colors: Only Orange, Brocade Blue, Old Olive and Chocolate Chip. I just love these colors together! Riley does such a great job choosing out our colors each week! Thanks Riley!
With this card, I chose to use my brand new and super cute Charlie Sledding set complimented by the Large Ovals Nestabilities my husband gave me for Christmas. How sweet is he? I have been wanting ovals for so long! (sigh .. I love him!)

The Details:

Stamps: Charlie Sledding (CDStamps)

Paper: Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Brocade Blue, Only Orange, Watercolor

Ink: Stazon JetBlack, Chocolate Chip, Only Orange, Brocade Blue, Old Olive

Tools: Large Ovals Nestabilities, Edge punch from my mom-I wish I knew its name!

My 2010 Sketch Book

I keep a sketch book to catalog blog challenges all thru the year. I write down color challenges, draw out the sketch challenges, ect and mark ones I have done and ones I want to do. I had fun decorating this one, I used Storybook dsp, watercoloring a scene using watercolor pencils and an aqua marker.

I cut the scene I wanted out along the waterline and added more Storybook dsp (ruby red stripe) to continue the child-like fun of the scene. How fun is this? It just sparks imagination and creativity for me. And the saying, "Youre never too old to do goofy stuff" - Ward Cleaver fits perfectly. That is from Smarty Pants stamp set (SU)

Thanks for looking, enjoy your Sunday!

PS: I did not draw this scene, I WISH I was that talented! The SU storybook dsp has a pattern on one side and drawn scenes on the other all in a nice texture which is lovely to watercolor on.

Do you remember Warm Fuzzies? Here's a 2 fer

Hi and Happy Saturday! This card is for two challenges, the Color Throwdown and the Fresh Batch sketch at Our Creative Corner. The colors for Color Throwdown are Rich Razzleberry, Mellow Moss and Garden Green.
So, do you remember Warm Fuzzies? When I was in elementary school in Eastern Washington, I remember teachers giving out Warm Fuzzies or Cold Pricklies in class, they looked alot like this stamp (Monster Mash - a ClearDollar Stamps new release) and had sticky feet. We put them on our pencils, on our desks, or even on our yellow pea-chees.. Remember those? haha.. Needless to say, the ole' warm fuzzy is one of the good memories of my childhood. You didnt want the teacher to give you a cold prickley, that wouldnt have been a good thing. haha I would love to hear if any of you guys have memories of the Warm Fuzzy, or maybe I am the only one. We did live in some small communities back in those days.

Details:

Stamps: Monster Mash (CDStamps)

Paper: Razzleberry Lemonade dsp, Mellow Moss, Garden Green, Whisper White

Ink: Stazon JetBlack, Rich Razzleberry, Garden Green

Coloring Medium: Prismacolor Pencils &Gamsol

Tools/Accessories: Rich Razzleberry ribbon, Lg Pinking Circle Nestabilites,

Sponge, Dimentionals

Clearly Inspired Challenge #5

Hello Everyone! I am so excited because today is the day for the Clearly Inspired Challenge, the Clear Dollar Stamps challenge.(this time it's a sketch challenge) This is my favorite challenge for so many reasons, one being because of the wonderful & talented ladies that participate along with me! I had to miss the last challenge because my husband was home visiting from Iraq, and one of the last things on my mind at the time was crafting. (weird, huh) Unfortunately, he had to return to "work"( in Iraq) last week and fortunately, I had time to pour some love and creativity into this week's challenge. I was chatting via AIM with my husband the entire time I was making this card, so it took over 2 hours to complete.

A special thing about this card are the whales themselves. The left whale is simply stamped on whisper white and colored in with my new prismacolor pencils and blended with gamsol. The right whale, on the other hand, using the same stamp, was inked onto this super neat rub on making kit my husband gave me for Christmas, and then placed next to the first whale as if they are kissing. I used the same prismacolor pencils to color the rub-on whale but since the pencil was on the wax-like rub on material, it turned out much lighter than the first. But, it did work much better than I thought it would!

The Details:

Stamps: Winter Eskimo (CDStamps)

Paper: Real Red, Sugar Rush (basic grey), Whisper White

Ink: Real Red, Stazon JetBlack

Coloring Medium: Prismacolor pencils (black & lt blue) Gamsol

Tools: Oval & Labels 4 Nestabilities, Grafix Rub-onz Transfer film,

dimentionals, corner rounder, word window

Accessories: Sugar Rush enamel brads, Basic Grey Taffeta Ribbon

Prismacolor & Gamsol #2 and CC253

Hello! Happy Thursday! Today is definately a happy Thursday because my shows are back on! Yeah for that! Anyway, today I was inspired by Tuesday's color challenge on Splitcoast. The colors are a yummy Chocolate Chip, Rich Razzleberry and Pretty in Pink. As soon as I set out these colors, this delicious stamp set came to mind, How Sweet it is from My Favorite Things. And, as this submission is titled, I also used this challenge to practice my Prismacolor pencils & Gamsol technique, and I have to say, that I am much happier with this attempt than my first. (Yeah!) Thank you so much for stopping by today and for the sweet comments you all leave, I so do appreciate each of them!

The Details:

Stamps: How Sweet it is (MFT)

Paper: Chocolate Chip, Tea Party dsp, Razzleberry Lemonade dsp

Rich Razzleberry, Pretty in Pink, Watercolor paper

Ink: Stazon JetBlack, Chocolate Chip

Coloring Medium: Prismacolor pencils & Gamsol

Tools/Accessories: Word Window, Labels 9 & Dahlia Nestabilities,

white micro brads, dimentionals

PaperTake Weekly sketch #32

When this paper came in the mail the other day, I fell in love ... (sigh..) it is from the Sugar Rush collection from Basic Grey, so today, I used it on this adorable sketch I found over at PaperTake Weekly. This tiny stamp set , Bee-lieve, is from Clear Dollar Stamps, and as tiny as it is, it's message makes a huge impact. (not to mention it is only $2.49) This card measures 5x5 really showing off that gorgeous dp!
Thanks for stopping by today, and thank you even more for saying Hello! Comments really do make my day!

Details:

Stamps: Bee-lieve (CDStamps)

Paper: Basic Grey, Pumpkin Pie, Basic Grey dp, whisper white

Ink: Basic Grey, Pumpkin Pie

Tools/Accessories: pumpkin pie brad, sponge, corner rounder

The Color Dare #51

Hello all! Welcome to another week of The Color Dare! This week, we DARE you to get crazy creative with the following color combination : Garden Green, Melon Mambo, Barely Banana. Great colors, right? I had alot of fun with them, and I hope you to too! I cant wait to see what you guys come up with!

Details:

Stamps: Critter Tales (CDStamps)

Paper: Razzleberry Lemonade dsp, Garden Green, Watercolor paper

Ink: Melon Mambo, Barely Banana, Garden Green, Stazon JetBlack

Tools/Accessories: Word Window, White brads, Melon Mambo ribbon,

Labels 3 Nestabilites, Mosaic Tile embossing folder, Aqua Painter, Sponge

My first attempt at Prismacolor & Gamsol

Ok here it is, my first stab at using the Prismacolor pencils my BFF, Cassie, gave me for Christmas. I have a hard time learning a new technique by just reading an instruction sheet as if that isnt terribly obvious, haha.. I am neither in love or disgusted with this card, but I am posting to hopefully get some tips and ideas from all you talented ladies out there. So please Help!

Details:

Stamps: Monkey Love (Clear Dollar Stamps)

Paper: Chocolate Chip & Sugar Rush (Basic Grey)

Ink: Stazon JetBlack, Chocolate Chip

Accessories/Tools: Labels 3 & Large Circle Nestabilities, floral embossing folder,

red epoxy Sugar rush brads, Prismacolor pencils, Gamsol

Just can't help but smile ...

Hello everyone! You just cant help but smile when you look at the adorable faces on these eskimo cuties! Well, it feels like its been forever since I have posted! Thanks to scheduled posts, it doesnt appear that I have been absent for a couple weeks! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season, I sure did! My husband got to come home for his 15 day R&R after being away for 7 1/2 months on Dec 21 and we really did have a wonderful time together. It was so very hard to have to take him back to the airport on Jan. 6th. (sigh..)
After a couple days I am now back to the me and my son routine, and thankful that it will only be another 3-4 months until we are a complete family again.

Enough about sad stuff, on to the fun stuff! This card, is the only one I made while my husband was home. As much as he just doesnt "get" the paper crafting world, he truly supports me in it. And while he and our son were playing wii, he insisted I go do some crafting .. and this card actually took me a long time to make, like a week or so. I started with watercoloring these adorable eskimos and then several days later I stole away a few minutes to finish up while the boys were off exploring the open desert that we live across the street from.

Thanks for stopping by my blog and thanks for saying HI! I love comments!!

The Details:

Stamps: Winter Eskimo (Clear Dollar Stamps)

Paper: Baja Breeze, Nutmeg Cosmo Cricket

Ink: Baja Breeze, Dusty Durango

Accessories/Tools: Chocolate Chip Ribbon, Word Window, Modern Label punch

Baja Breeze brads, aqua painter

Jason and Connor having fun around the fire

Hello Everyone! I just wanted to give you all an update with what's been going on with me the last couple weeks. ... My husband came home for R&R on Dec 21st after being deployed for a long 7 1/2 months. And since then, we have been enjoying our family time so very much. I cannot even express how very wonderful it has been to have him home over the holidays, heck, to just to have him home! Needless to say, my craft table has been feeling very neglected and lonely, but I am sure there is some understanding there.
Unfortunately, R&R is only a short 15 days, and my husband has to go back to Iraq this Wednesday morning. This being our fourth combat tour, I should be used to sending my husband to Iraq - again - but, honestly, my heart is breaking that he has to leave again. I am trying to focus on the fact that once he gets back, we only have 3-4 months until this deployment is over.
I know after I take my husband back to the airport, I will once again, find comfort in my stamps, designer paper and my new prismacolor pencils (thank you my BFF Cassie!) and I will be back in the swing of things getting back to my favorite challenges like the Clearly Inspired Challenge and designing for The Color Dare.
Until then, Happy Crafting! I will see you all soon!