Superbowl 'Kissing' Distrations

I took advantage of the men being distracted by the big screen, cold beer and munchies today to spend much of the afternoon hiding in the 'women cave' aka my Crafting Corner ... who knew I would grow up craving to be sent to the corner for the afternoon???

So with my free time I spent this afternoon coming up with this wonderful offering of 'love' for my Technique Tuesday class this coming week .... with February being the Month of Love I thought we would revisit our KISSING techniques ;)

 The butterflies were 'kissed' in numerous ways from the stamped off kiss, uninked kiss and finally two toned kissing ... you cannot see it too well in the photo but the Upsy Daisy was kissed with some En Francis two toned kisses .... seriously who doesn't like some kissing such a cute and fun little technique?

My creation this week was inspired by the wonderful Sketch challenge over at 1{heart}2stamp .... hop on by and check out the wonderful inspirations from the Design Team and other bloggers!

 The color combo of Basic Black, Real Red, Regal Rose and Whisper White from over at ColourQ ... some wonderful inspirations go check them up too.

Happy Stampin'
Margaret

Queen for a Day

Playing along this week with a couple awesome challenges to create the following offering  ... using a sketch inspired by Freshly Made Sketches, a Color palette from the Color Q and adding a Crown embellishment for over at the Just Add Ink to help celebrate their 100th birthday!

Reduce, reuse and recycle is the name of the game here by using the negative section of the Labels Collection Framelits to make a cool frame for the birthday sentiment.

 The Elementary Elegance stamp set is just divine and embossing it in silver makes it really elegant!

 I love the little Trinkets from the Simply Adorned line...

See what others created with this sketch here ....

Be inspired by Color over at the Color Q ...

And wish the ladies over at Just Add Ink a 100th Birthday over here ...

Happy Stampin'
Margaret

Just Add Ink meets the Color Q

Well this week over at the Just Add Ink blog the challenge was to CASE (copy and share everywhere) something from the wonderful and amazingly talented Tania Gould ... just peruse her inspiring blog to see how easy a feat this will be for card bloggers to rise to this challenge! 

Her work is breath taking! I was particularly inspired by this card ... one of my favorite stamp sets combined with a Vintage look and bling - what more is there too love?

So after being inspired by some of her amazing designs and 3D flowers I decided I needed a color palette inspiration to avoid being tempted from just totally 'casing' her card colors and all ... so I headed over to another of my favorite blogs the Color Q , for some inspiration! 

Found this weeks color scheme of Night of Navy, Marina Mist, Bashful Blue, Sahara Sand and White and thought THAT IS JUST PERFECT!

So down to the craft room I went to create the following offering ... I created the distressed background paper by sponging with Night of Navy, Marina Mist and Bashful Blue and than stamping with the En Francis background - applying the Foxy Oxi technique and crumpling the paper while it was  still damp - always makes one cringe a little to crumple their hard work!

Once it was dry I distressed the edges and sponged with Night of Navy to darken them up again cause the Foxy Oxi removed quiet a bit of color on me. I than stamped the Cherish sentiment and the Baroque Motif image in Night of Navy and created a matching envelope so it does not arrive 'naked' to whomever gets this treasure.

I created the accent piece with my 2 1/2 inch scallop circle punch. I first stamped a piece of Sahara Sand cardstock with the En Francis stamp in Night of Navy and than punched out 6 scallop circles, sponged the edges with Night of Navy and spritzed with water and crumpled them to distress them. Opened the scallops and layered them on top of each other to create my flower and adhered them together with a vintage brad and spritzed the flower with Vanilla Shimmer mist.

 The leave accents are from the Bird Builder punch which were covered with Tombow and fine galaxy glitter in the Champagne color - this card really is stunning in real life with the dimension and shimmer and glitter ... very fun to make!

A huge thank you to the wonderful challenge blog creators out there who help to get my creative juices flowing - your hard work and inspiration truly is appreciated :)

Happy Stampin'

Margaret

Just Add Ink Color Q challenge

Combined the following three challenges to create my Masculine Fall cards for OWH this month ... just have to learn how to do my 'envelope tuck' and I can send out a bunch for the end of the month!

Click the photos to links to the awesome website challenges and to see other peoples inspirations from these sketches! 

And here are my offerings inspired by the above sketches ... I was inspired by the Just Add Ink photo to pull out my Lovely as a Tree Stamp set ... and the Color Q inkspiration of Black, Basic Grey, More Mustard (do not have Crushed Curry anymore as it is retired) and Tangerine Tango.

I am loving the new Peekaboo Frame die cause it is awesome for creating 'sentiments' on card bases ... for this card I used the Petite Pairs stamp set for the sentiment of I am here for you - no matter what! 

Note to self in future - sponge your sentiment inside before you glue it in otherwise the ink does not stick to the glue - however I like the 'marble look' it created  it looks better in real life!

 This is another offering using the same Inkspirations  but I changes up the layout a wee bit ... to be honest this was an accident card I tries to salvage ... as I accidentally cut one of my pieces wrong for the OWH sketch and wanted to savage of the brayer work I had done.

 I used the Jewellery Tag punch and the Tiny Tags to add a little hint of sentiment to the front ... and tied it all together with a Vintage brad and some black grosgrain ribbon!

Thanks for stopping by

Happy Stampin
Margaret

Colour Q #96

This card color combo was inspired by this weeks Colour Q challenge .... unfortunately I did not get my act together in time to submit it ... I got distracted by some rather yummy naughty smoothies this weekend ... but love the colour combination! 

So inspired by the colour combination I went in search of a stamp set that matched the inspiration and came up with the new Up Up and Away stamp set ... I used my brayer on Whisper White paper to make a Bashful Blue sky and Lucky Limeade green space which was versamarked with Pocket Silhouette stamp for texture.

The Up Up and Away balloons were done in two ways - the middle balloon is versamarked and heat embossed with the Tempting Turquoise and that two balloons on the side are done with the Stamp Write Markers to allow for two tone balloons in Bashful Blue and Tempting Turquoise. 

 

The clouds, birds and baskets are in Basic Gray with a little Tangerine Tango thrown in for the sun. 

 

Happy Stampin' 

Happy 'A La Card Monkey' Easter

Hope everyone is having a peaceful and restful long Easter Weekend ... I have so been relishing the wonderful extra days! Friday we took in a Toronto Blue Jays game which was totally awesome - close action packed game that went into extra innings!

Then 'reality' hit for yesterday with errands - what a zoo at Holiday can make of the grocery stores man - twice as many shoppers equals three times as long line ups for some reason!

Thankfully today I got to spend lots of time in the craft room catching up and relaxing ... partaking in some challenge inspired card making!

Thank you to the Colour Q for the following color combo ...

Along with the A La Card Monkey Challenge for the following layout challenge ... which was just too cute and inspired the card belong!

So had to tweak the Color Q colour combo a wee bit using a Subtle's collection of Baja Breeze, Certainly Celery, So Saffron and Pink Pirouette and incorporating the Easter Blossoms stamp set with the Inspired by Nature set and using the Scallop Edge border punch with the Decorative Label punch ...

and of course a nice close up of some bling on the sentiment as well as in the basket of the little girl!

Happy Easter too all - and for those of you who get tomorrow off as well enjoy the extra long weekend and for those heading back to normal work life - hope the Bunny was good to you and that his arrival will continue to mean sunny warm days for those of us who have so been longing for more signs of SPRING that we have had this weekend!

Creative Scrappers #152 meets Saturday ScrapSketch27

So the craft room is almost back to a temporary state of workablity - in that everything is back in its container and sorted from the big fall and a small work space is emerging.

As they say everything happens for a reason - my other half has taken pity on me and the perils of 'store bought materials' and their lack of quality these days and taken measurements to build me a custom made storage unit to hold my papers, punches and other products!!!

In the meantime another MDS offering inspired by the Saturday ScrapSketch 27 over on My Digital Studio offered by Alesha Walls ...

Which I used to create the following right page layout using the new Color Challenge from over at Color Q I missed the deadline for it however loved that it showcased some of the awesome colors in the new Beyond the Garden DSP! Also love how the button gives so much dimension stretched up so large - hoping it turns out as crisp when printed!

Then we blog hopped over to the Creative Scrappers and participated in the Sketch #152 which as such a pretty layout as well!

And here is my left side layout for this challenge ... again using the same colour scheme, Beyond the Garden DSP and accenting with a Beautiful Butterfly die layered with textured papers to create the sponged look and depth and some half back pearls for bling factor! I also used the Just Believe stamp set at 20% opacity on the Crumb Cake background to give a tone on tone Wersamark look!

Thanks for stopping by!

Scrapsketch 26 & Color Q

Congratulations to Alesha Walls on the safe arrival of her newest addition to the family - a beautiful baby girl - whose arrival inspired this weeks Saturday Scrapsketch over on My Digital Studio!

I was also inspired to incorporate into my layout this weeks Color Q challenge as well as ... such pretty combination of colors - felt so springy.

So inspired by these two challenges I looked through my 'Vintage' photos of my childcare and came across these fun ones from an afternoon at the Great Aunt's yard - blowing bubbles and having fun - I have many a fond memory of playing at their place on a Sunday afternoon!

I incorporated a lot of different elements into these pages ... the Sweet Stitches DSP paper, Baroque Motif brush stamp vine, One of a Kind brush stamp set and lots of half back pearls and glimmer brads!

Mojo Monday 179 and Colour Q Challenge

So the following card is inspired from the sketch layout over on Mojo Monday ...

and the Colour Q challenge this week - however I did not have those exact colours so substituted Pacific Blue and Tempting Turquoise for my two blues and Certainly Celery for the green.

And here is my inspired card! Featuring a 2 1/2 scallop circle punch flower in Rich Razzleberry paired with a Pear Pizazz Glitter brad. Created homemade designer series paper using the Elements of Style in Versamark on the Tempting Turquoise and Pear Pizazz on the Whisper White.

Behind layers featuring Pinking Hearts Border on the Rich Razzleberry, Pacific Blue DSP and a some Certainly Celery ribbon and finished off with a few pretty pearl accents and the Life is a matter of moments sentiment!

Hope you enjoy it ... making it tonight felt like a little bit of spring to me!

Sunday Sketchy 51

This is a card I created after being inspired by Liz Goldhawk's Sketchy Sunday over on her blog - Liz is my upline mentor and she is SO full of great ideas!

So here is the sketch ...

And here is my inspiration from that sketch ... a Just Believe Black Magic card ... the color combination of Early Espresso, Poppy Parade and Blushing Bride came from the Color Q challenge #70 last week as well.

I love the paper flowers ... they are so easy to color with a sponge dauber and some ink ... this card was just so much fun to make ... and if you like it make sure to register for my Stamp a Stack on February 26th because this will be one of the featured cards!

Colour Q Challenge 66

This weeks Colour Q Challenge was so inspiring - I love blue and yellows together!

I also found this colour combination PERFECT for trying out my new Framed Tulip's Emboss folder page 28 in the new Occasions Mini and the Blessed Mother stamp set from page 18 in the Mini ... also used the wonderful Frost Smooch sponged around the edge of the embossed folder to give it a nice glittery bling!

And no card would be complete without some nice bling ... this time opted for the little pearl accents!

If you like this card and would love to make one for your Mom this is one of the cards we will be making at my Open House tomorrow .... this set is great for Birthdays, Mother's Day or just because cards - if you cannot make the Open House but are interested in ordering this set just shoot me an email or click on my Online Store link!

Happy Stampin'

Clean Simple Colour Q Challenge Cards

Happy New Year Everyone - may 2011 be full of abundance and prosperity for all!

Today's card offering palette is inspired by the Colour Q Challenge #65

As well as the layout inspired from the Clean & Simple 121 challenge a challenge that is my New Years resolution to take more often as I tend to design cards that are more time consuming that workshops and classes allow for so the inspiration from these challenges should help me to learn to find the elegant beauty that can be found in clean and simple!

So I think I did a pretty good job here combing both challenges! The colour palette of the Crumb Cake card stamped the En Francais background stamp in versamark and than the clean and simple inspired Old Olive cardstock strip run through the Plenty of Petals emboss folder and accented with the Scallop Trim border in Basic Black. Embellished with the 5 Petal Flower done in Basic Black, Basic Grey and Whisper White and accented with a Build a Brad button stamped with the Tiny Tags 4 You sentiment. The sentiment which I placed on the Word window punch layered with the Modern Label punch is the 'With Sympathy' stamp from Teeny Tiny Wishes.

This is a sentiment that you always regret needing but unfortunately I had a friend who has lost her father this holiday season and wanted to send her my condolences with a nice handmade card sending vibes of strength during her time of grief!