Rising to the Challenge

Took advantage of a weekend away for Fathers Day to carve out some time to boot up My Digital Studio and rise to some challenges for inspiration with a scrapbook layout of my wonderful kitty Nevada and our recent road trip with her ... one of the things I do love about My Digital Studio is it allows me to scrapbook anywhere and well since the boys were off doing their boy fun a girl needs to be able to play too!

I was inspired by my online friends Maggie and Rhoda over at My Stamping Best Friend and their June's Color Challenge to make use of the wonderful new 2013-14 In Colors of Coastal Cabana and Strawberry Slush with Basic Grey combined with this wonderful Hexagon inspired June layout challenge of Sketch 348 from over at Scrapbook Challenges which I had a whole lot of fun playing along with cause I am loving the little Hexagon punch from Stampin' Up both in its digital version and the traditional punch!

Hope everyone has had a wonderful Father's Day today!

Happy Stampin'
Margaret

Positive Vibes for Philis

Found some time to hide in my craft room this weekend and get caught up on preparing for upcoming classes and making some Card Warrior offerings for Rhonda Wades Project Hope.

Today's a 'multitasking' initiative which allowed me to create samples to showcase at my upcoming 'Faux Stain Glass' Technique Tuesday class ... as well as create a card for Ms. Philis Bukovcik who needs our positive thoughts and vibes of strength during her fight of Ovarian Cancer ... may she feel our strength and courage on her journey.

Happy Stampin'

Pop Up Window Card

Our final card from last Saturday's Stamp-a-Stack ... a pop up window card featuring Fabulous Florets with the Melon Mambo embossing powders and sentiment options from the Hostess Set 'Tagtastic'.

This first card was a quick and simple background using the Fabulous flower stamp image with Versamark to make a watermark on the Pretty in Pink paper.

This card was to showcase a 'step up' option and used the Baroque Motif swirl stamp with clear emboss powder on the Pretty in Pink layer ... which added some nice elegance to the card.

I just love the pop up card window card fold ... this was my first time trying it and I am just excited to try it with different stamp sets!

Happy Stampin'

Fabulous Florets

Another card from this months Stamp-a-Stack ... really loving the Lucky Limeade it is such a striking shade of green!

This Sympathy card features the Fabulous Florets stamp set embossed with white and sponged in Pretty in Pink and Pink Pirouette with the Lucky Limeade accents! The back layer of the card was run through the Elegant Lines Emboss folder and the Corner Ticket punch to help some of the Pink Pirouette paper pop from the front layer.

The second card is the same layout we just switched up the back layers embossing folder to try in out the new Stripes emboss folder - which I love with the Organza ribbon and cannot wait to play with some more to see it used with other techniques!

The Saturday Stamp-a-Stacks are a load of fun and we are always welcoming new friends to the Stampin' table - to check out the classes please feel free to check out My Events calendar and sign up for a class!

Happy Stampin'

Shattered Glass

This card was absolutely so much fun to make ... it is one of the ones from last nights 'shattered glass' technique class ... color combo of Marina Mist and So Saffron with some Beyond the Garden DSP.

Than using the large and extra large tag punches to frame out the Fabulous Floret stamp which was water colored with our Watercolor crayons and than had the shattered glass technique applied over top off all three.

Finally I used the Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set with Basic Black ink on the Whisper White which I stamped with the Fabulous Floret image in So Saffron as a 'negative' to the DSP behind it and punched it out with the Designer Label punch and accented with the Hodgepodge Hardware - and of course some half back pearls for the bling factor!

I think it turned out really great ... also allowed me to use some products that I have not used in a long time - such as the Hodgepodge Hardware and the Tag punches!

Oh and I see SUN in these hear parts - we have had so much rain the past few weeks I am so excited to get outside with my kiddies and spend the morning at the park basking in the sun :)

Happy Stampin'
Margaret

Fabulous Florets - Joy Fold

Just LOVING playing with this new Summer Mini set ... Fabulous Florets - which coordinate so nicely with many of our other sets as well to make endless possibilities for card designs!

If you are wanting to earn this set FREE now is the time to book a workshop to host in your home or mine with a few of your friends who love stampin or scrapping too!

Love the Whimsical Words sentiment set from last years Sale-abration ... fit in perfectly with this layout!

Only a few more days until Mother's Day - time to get those cards in the mail if you are not able to see your mother in person to celebrate!

Fabulous Friend

This card was inspired by last Sundays - Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge ....

Although I did not get it uploaded to the blog in time to participate ... figured I would share it today cause it is a nice cheery card!

Featuring the Fabulous Florets stamp set which I tried out the new Wild Wasabi embossing powder on the leafy stamp - so pretty! I paired this with the Beyond the Garden DSP and the All Holidays Stamp 'My Kind & Wonderful Friend' for the Sentiment .... just love the way this turned out!

I also tried my hand at the 'double bow' to get the two toned blue and white bow and than finished it off with a nice big button - although I wish we had Pacific Point buttons cause I had to choose a Tempting Turquoise one which is not 'quite' the right shade!

Mash it up!

Being away on Friday did not stop me from coming back to be inspired by an awesome Friday Mashup Challenge ... create a Black and White & Square card ...

Which was an awesome challenge to pair with the Create with Connie and Mary Challenge ... which was also a square card challenge!

So here is my final inspiration .... Black and White Fabulous Florets .... the more I play with this set the more I just LOVE it! I paired the black and white stamped images with a little bit of embossing powder for some pop factor and used the Heard from the Heart Sentiment and a Rosettes as finishing touches!

I cut out the stem and a black embossed with white floret and popped them up on dimensional's for a bit of added dimension ... I just love the way this one turned out and hope you do to!

Sneak Peek - Flower Garden

So here is another fun Sketch for this week ... from over at The Sweetest Things hop on over and check them out lots of great ideas and inspiring card designs!

And here is my inspiration from the challenge!

So this baby features the Pacific Point, Tempting Turquoise, Melon Mambo and Old Olive combination which was awesome to showcase the new Flower Garden embossing folder ... which I admit did not really WOW me in the summer mini however seeing samples made with it IRL has totally converted me - it is a nice deep embossed image with lots of potential for adding pop to a card!

I also played some more with the new Fabulous Florets stamp set and paired the Beautiful Wings embosslit with this one... which you can see below here accented with some pretty half back pearls and some sponging on the wings.
And considering we have had year more snow this week - I am ever so more ready to spend time hiding in the craft room with my floral images and butterflies and experiencing a virtual spring down there!

A La Card Monkey Challenge 52

So this weeks Challenge over at A La Card Monkey was lots of fun ... make a card using following layout and a theme of your favorite hot beverage ....

Now unfortunately I do not have any traditional stamps that have a 'beverage theme' at this point and well I finally got back into my craft room and was itching to use hands on stamps ... so came up with a compromise and I boiled up the kettle and made a nice cup of Hot Chocolate and threw a shot of Baileys into it and come up with the following ....

I just loved that it is show casing the awesome color combination of Marina Mist and Crumb Cake with the new Fabulous Florets stamp set .... such a pretty set! I paired it with the Baroque Motif vine with Versamark on the Crumb Cake cardstock as I thought this set matched nicely with the mini version on the Tiny Tags set to tie it all together and well that wonderful Chantilly Crocheted lace - just divine!

Here is an up close of the Tiny Tags Stamp set combined with the Tiny Tags punch ... and the Ice brads were a perfect compliment to add some bling!

As much as I move My Digital Studio - I have to admit it felt so great to be back in the stamp room getting down and dirty with my stamps and inks!

Fabulous Florets - Mojo Monday 185

This weeks Mojo Monday Challenge for Week 185 entries was lots of fun ... I opted to play with the My Digital Studio as my Stampin' room is slowly being over run with dozens and dozens of Petal Cone vase creations for next weeks AECEO conference!So I made three different cards inspired by the layout ... and using the same stamp set Fabulous Florets and the same Designer Series Paper Beyond the Garden ... both of which will be available to customers as of May 1st ... they will be in the new Summer Mini in both the traditional stamping versions as well as the My Digital Studio download - as well as some very pretty coordinating embellishments which will make creating tradition, digital and hybrid creations a breeze!

I choose the color combo for my first card based below on the Color Throwdown Challenge which was orange, blue and kraft or aka the new Crumb Cake...are these colors not so pretty together and the Beyond the Garden DSP tied in perfectly?

This Happy Birthday version features the Sentiment from the Curly Cute brush set - which is also available in traditional stamp in the current catalog! I created the matching flower from the DSP by using the Blossom Party die cut in My Digital Studio and matting it with the color pick option to the DSP centre of the flower...and of course blinged it up with some glimmer brads!

Thank you card also used the sentiment from Curly Cute as well as the Pom Pom trim embellishments which are available as well in traditional format and stamped the flower images from the Fabulous floret over top of some layered punches filled with a darker dynamic duo color option to give the two toned feature to the images and accented with some Half Back pearls!


Finally the My Dear, Kind and Wonderful Friend sentiment from All Holidays which is very similar to the above card except I switched out the DSP and colour combo to Tangerine Tango and Melon Mambo!

I always love how you can use the same stamps, the same DSP sets and yet come up with some vastly different and beautiful projects ... just another reason why Stampin' Up products are some awesome to me - they co-ordinate so wonderful together and make coming up with projects a breeze!