Happy Memorial Day

May God Bless our troops and their families.

Get some tissues ready for this video.

{ color chef challenge #53 }

Color Chef Challenge #53

light blue dark blue red white or cream

I created this card for some friends who invited us to a Twins Game last weekend in the new Target Field. We were fortunate enough to attend TWO baseball games last week. AMAZING!!! I took some amazing pictures and we had 2 great days at the park.
Anyhow, our friend who invited us to the game is a career military guy and since it is Memorial Weekend, I thought it appropriate to create a patriotic themed project for this week!

Here is a game of my DH and I at the game just a week ago!!

And here is my stamping buddy today- Jack. See, this is why I don't pick up my laundry, so that Jack has a soft place to lay while I stamp. I caught Jack in a half-blink and I think it's a funny picture of him. Too cute to not share.

Finally...My card is very simple and onle ONE layer!! It's harder to make one layer cards than I would think but since I found SIMPLICITY today, I decided to keep that train of thought going.


Card Recipe:
stamps- rustic flowers, for every occasion- CTMH
ink- crystal blue, indian corn blue, cranberry- CTMH

I hope you'll join me in taking a moment to remember the real reason we have Monday off. I also hope you'll play along with the color challenge!

{ color chef challenge #52 }

There were some beautiful creations last week for the Color Chef Challenge #52.

Irit's card was drawn to win the badge this week:
Thanks to everybody who played along. I hope you'll come back for another challenge!

{ one-layer Wednesday on Sunday }

I'm really not sure how this little gem of a blog slipped through my fingers but I am glad I finally found it!! Susan posed a challenge to create a one-layer card with the sentiment running through the image.

I had so much fun, I created two (somewhat) quick cards.

For the first card, I created a mask out of thin typing paper and then laid that down before I stamped the yellow background image. Then I went back in and stamped in the masked area the butterfly. Over the top of the yellow design, I stamped Happy Birthday in a cool font in red. I did the mask for the butterfly because there was too much going on otherwise.


Card Recipe:
stamps- Happy Birthday- CTMH, Darcey Collection- Anna Griffin
ink- tulip, creme brule, juniper- CTMH


For the second card, I simply stamped the flower image and then the sentiment in black over that. Easy Peasy!


stamps- tickled pink and hapoy birthday- CTMH
ink- juniper and black- CTMH

{ popsicle birthday }

I happened upon a "new to me" blog with some great color challenges- with prizes!

Here was Kim's challenge: Pink Orange and Blue

I love these little Popsicles, so I repeated the challenge colors and mounted one of each color. Then I used my Liquid Glass to make each of them look "real". I made this into a happy birthday card. Seems appropriate for any age!

The I was able to dip the Popsicle portion of the stamp into the bubblegum, orange and ocean ink and the stick portion into the dessert sand, so that it is similar to the color of a popsicle stick.

Card Recipe:
stamps- critters 'n treats- basic grey, happy birthday- CTMH
ink- bubblegum, dessert sand, ocean, orange and black- CTMH
paper- white daisy- CTMH
other- liquid glass- CTMH, pop dots- Hobby Lobby

{ bold flower }

This isn't the card that I thought I would create when I sat down to stamp this morning, but I love the boldness of it.

I used scraps of the yellow paper for a background, which is also on the inside of the card. I used scrap ribbon- love this stuff that I found at a great little stamping spot in St. Paul that has since gone out of business.
I colored the flower in with a combination of my CTMH marker as well as my prisma markers- love those markers!!

I hope you are having a relaxing weekend!!

{ the card that wasn't felt }

I was excited to learn that it was a blog hop for PTI tonight, then I read the fine print and saw that it was all about felt...... Since I started my card on lunch (and didn't finish the idea) I thought it would be perfect to mull over during the afternoon and work some felt into during the evening.... So I'm going for the blog hop anyway and I hope you like my card despite the lack of felt!

Well, there was no way I could work pink felt into this card. Pink is the only color felt I have and I liked the blue against the kraft and cream stocks......

So, this is what I have. I clear embossed the woodgrain and decided to repeat the embossing over the flower as well. So first I stamped it then I dried that with my heat gun to ensure I'd only have EP where I wanted it.

I mounted the flower and decided to use some brads. Haven't used brads forever so that was fun.

Card Recipe:
stamps- woodgrain & a year of flowers: violets- PTI
ink- prussian blue colobox chalk fluid ink pad, versamark
paper- brown kraft- Hobby Lobby, cream- CTMH
other- brads- from my stash of brads, embossing powder

{ color chef challenge #52 }

For this week I'm using a color combo that is so bright and festive- I love it and I hope you will too!

Color Chef Challenge #52

black yellow turquoise red

For my card, I decided to use Karen's sketch. For the flourish, I decided to rotate the branches folder so that the lines would be vertical. BTW- does anybody know how to get a smooth edge rather than an obvious edge of the folder?? Does that make any sense?

Card Recipe:
stamps- Darcey Collection- Anna Griffin
paper- breeze texture- hobby lobby, honey, cranberry- CTMH
ink- black- CTMH
other- cuttlebug branches folder, cuttlebug, martha stewart butterfly punch, adhesive rhinestones

I hope you'll play along!

{ color chef challenge #51 winner }

I really loved the entries this week- they were so pretty! This card by ccubedx2 won via random.org


C-Cubed- here is your winners badge code!!

{ FTL 91 }

TGIF!!! I have lots going on this weekend so I wanted to be sure and get some time in the stamp room tonight! And on a side note, thank you for taking my little quiz over on the right.

Awesome sketch...here's my card.
Pretty simple. Stamped the polka dot background. Cut out and mounted the flower. Since I did the polka dot background in black, I had to add another paper layer there so you could actually read the sentiment.

Card Recipe:
stamps- Posy- CTMH, spot on background- CTMH
paper- lilac mist, cream- CTMH
ink- black, lilac mist and garden green- CTMH

{ housekeeping }

Just a couple of things... I added a poll to the top right of my blog that I'd appreciate some feedback on. I have a couple of other interests in addition to card making and I am trying to decide if I should keep it all on one blog or start some separate ones. I'd love to know what you think.

Also, for my color challenges, I decided to switch to inlinkz because I love the little thumbnails when I am perusing other blogs. I've never used it before but if you encounter any problems, please don't hesitate to email me!

Hope your week is going well. We are experiencing BEAUTIFUL weather!!

{ color chef challenge #51 }

Color Chef Challenge #51 Bamboo (tan), tulip (light red), black
For my card I simply layered the flower image on top of a black layer of stock. Then I stamped the sentiment onto a scrap piece of bamboo stock then mounted that onto black stock. It is trimmed to be the same size as the black piece under the main image.

I hope you'll play along!

{ color chef challenge #50 prize winner }

Check out the awesome card that Billie made- she actually made 2 but this is the one that was drawn to win!Here is your badge code, Billie!

{ color chef challenge #50 and a prize }

Happy Monday to you!!

I am shocked to realize that this is my 50th color chef challenge! To celebrate and honor all my readers, I'd like to give a prize away to the winner of this color challenge.

Color Chef Challenge #50: Greenish Blue cream, black



I love any color combined with cream/white and black. Let's see what you can create using the color combination and the winner (drawn by random.org) will win a set of amazing acrylic stamps by Fancy Pants Designs. There are 32 stamps in this stamp set!


My card Recipe:
stamps- happy birthday- CTMH, A Year of Flowers: Violets- PTI
ink- black- CTMH
paper- cream, juniper breeze, black- CTMH
other- cuttlebug, swiss dots folder

I hope you'll play along this week. I love seeing what you create!

{ colro chef challenge #49 winner }

Check out this adorable card that Tina made...




Here is your badge, Tina!



Thanks for playing!

{ eighty nine! }

I found some time to work in my stamp room tonight and it was fun to play! I made a few cards that I'll be showing in a few days here but just as I was cleaning up my table, this layout popped up in my Google Reader and I had to play!

Used one of my favorite color combos for this card. Breeze, Black and Cream. Yum-O. Ideally, I would have had different sized images, but since the only other size would have been too big for this layout I decided to make two of them smaller by just cutting them down.

To color the image, I used my prisma colored pencils. I love how smooth they are- like buttah!!

Bad photo but I added stickles to the center of each flower.

This post has taken far too long to actually publish because I can't tear myself away from Real Housewives of New York...wow. There aren't words for this and yet I can't miss an episode. Am I alone here?

Here's to Friday!!

Card Recipe:
stamps- A Year of Flowers: Violets- PTI, Happy Birthday- CTMH
paper- breeze texture- Hobby Lobby, cream and black- CTMH
ink- breeze, black- CTMH
other- stickles

{ color chef challenge #49 }

This weeks Color Chef Challenge: Kraft, Violet, and light green

Still loving my new woodgrain stamp set along with my year in flowers: violets stamp sets from PTI. Mother's Day is this weekend and I thought a soft color combination in conjunction with these two stamp sets could still be feminine. Obviously the flowers are feminine but I wanted to pair the two sets of stamps together.

Very simple card. I created the background on the craft paper. Then on cream stock I stamped and cut out the flowers to mount them on the card front. Then I ran some twine through a CTMH button and attached that to the card front. I think I will repeat the design on the envelope to make it a very special card!

My card recipe:
stamps- woodgrain, a year of flowers: violets- PTI, say it in style- CTMH
paper- kraft- Hobby Lobby, cream- CTMH
ink- sweet leaf, lilac mist, bamboo- CTMH
other- foam mounting tape, twine- Archivers, button- CTMH

In case you hadn't noticed, or if you have any questions, I added a link at the top of the blog that includes the rules of the color chef challenge for you to refer to.

I hope you'll play along this week. I love seeing what you create!

{ color chef #48 winner }

Did you miss me? I took a little hiatus from my blog, totally unplanned, but it felt really good. Truth by told, my husband normally works really crappy hours (as far as spending time together) and he's in the middle of a 3 week vacation so we've been spending some time together. I haven't been on my computer much and to be honest, it felt good to unplug for a bit.

And, I want to thank my sweet readers who checked up on me by leaving sweet comments and sending me emails. I am so grateful to you for your kindness!! And I am sorry if I worried any of you :)

The badge goes to........
Emma created this lovely card and if you check out her blog, you'll see a beautiful layout there as well using the same color scheme.



Thank you so much for playing along!!