My Time to Create Template Challenge

Happy Saturday stampers! You know what that means - it's another My Time to Create challenge from our fabulous Lauren Meader AND this week it's a template challenge. I am so addicted to Lauren's templates that I couldn't wait to work on this challenge. Your task this week is to use any one of Lauren's My Timeless Templates (remember there are two free ones so ANYONE can play along) to package up candy! How sweet is that?!?!? (Yes, pun intended)

Ok I've had this idea in my head for a while so I finally put it all together... there will be several pics in this post so scroll on down to see them all. I decided to make Thanksgiving favor boxes/place cards. Even more special is a little twist for the candy inside... more about that in a minute. The template is Tucked Away - at this point it's my most favorite - I use it all the time. Most of these are the petite versions but one of the favors (for my DH) is the larger size. The stamps on the top label are from Theresa Momber's Autumn Beauty - as is the leaf image on the name tag. The names were just printed on vanilla CS on my computer in a deep brown then punched and sponged before adhering. Some of the papers are from Gina K, a couple of those are Digital papers - the rest of the papers are from PTI's Autumn Abundance which I ADORE. Since I have time I'll probably finish making the set with all papers from the PTI set so they "match" sort of and I'll probably make my DH a petite version so there is no "Favor Box Envy" going on at the table. *grin*

Now, the idea here is that each family member/guest will select their favor box from the centerpiece and place it at their chosen dinner spot at the table. What they WON'T know until they open it up - is that yes, there is candy inside - I chose to fill them with hershey nuggets. But very special nuggets...

Have you ever had a Dove chocolate? And when you open up the tin foil there is an inspirational saying printed on the inside of the foil? Well I can't do that so I did "I'm Thankful For Labels" instead. I will ask each family member to send me a list of THREE things they are thankful for about each member of the family. I will then print all of those up onto label sheets, wrap the nuggets with the thankful for saying for each person. Then, as part of our Thanksgiving tradition, everyone will have multiple sweet thoughts from various family members to carry them through the next several days as they eat their sweet treats.

Here's a sneak peak at a couple of the labels for my husband's candies... little silly things that will let him know I am thankful for him. (and yes he does the dishes AND the laundry so I have more stampin time!)

Now scoot over to the rest of the DT and see what they have in store for you. (I've only listed the ones I know are playing - the rest of the team is in my sidebar) Come back when you are done and link to Mr. Linky (or on Lauren's blog) and show us what you create. Can't wait to see what you do.

Lauren
Kristen
Dana
Lisa
Tracey
MacKenzie
Tamara
Odette
Alicia

Have a lovely weekend. Thanks for stopping by.

PTI Blog Hop

Wow it's September 25th already! You know what that means - time for PTI Blog Hop. This month's assignment was to reuse, repurpose or recycle packaging from our Papertrey Package. I keep all of my clear plastic boxes that my stamp sets ship in so I thought I'd work one of those into something other than a box to hold a set of gift cards.

I came up with a simple Halloween Treat container - made from one of the clear boxes. I'm sorry the photos aren't real bright - it was foggy and overcast today when I needed to photograph. I trimmed off the top of one of the boxes then covered both sides of the box with some Smokey Shadow CS that had been punched along the edge with my lace apron punch. I used Scor-Tape to adhere the CS to the box so it wouldn't lift up. I added a layer of one of the new Hocus Pocus papers and a "belly band" around the entire box. Next, using my new Vintage Labels, my Labels One nestie and my new Halloween Tags, I created a fun label for the front of my treat container. I added a ribbon handle made from True Black gros grain paired with Orange Zest Bitty Dot. I covered up the ends of the ribbon with Vintage Buttons and then tied on some additional ribbon to just fall loosely over the edges for a fun look. This box is filled with Werther's candy - a favorite of a special someone in my family (wonder who'll be getting this box?). It holds an entire bag of Werthers!! Here are a couple of shots of the detail on the label/tag plus the button detail on the other end of the box.

Looking forward to seeing what everyone else has come up with. I'm sure there will be some spectacular ideas. Happy hopping stampers!

Pretty Woman

Post #2 today - scroll down for some Birthday Love as well :-)

This week I played along with a new challenge that I was not familiar with, called Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge. The movie this week, selected by diva, Gina K, was Pretty Woman. Going with the idea from one of my favorite scenes, I chose to use the brown & white polka dots - I don't have a dress stamp but I have these fabulous new Verve stamps with polka dot shoes and handbag!!! So here's to you, Vivian - you DID learn to "Express Yourself" and you certainly showed that "You've Got Style" (inside).

A really simple card but it turned out kinda fun - for a special friend who is a "shoe diva".

Got to scoot - here's a peek at the inside also. Thanks for looking. FUN challenge.

Edited to add: OH BOY - now that I am all done and posted I went back to the site and realized that part of the challenge was to PAPER PIECE!! YIKES - sorry that part got right past me - I know I could recreate this card and paper piece the purse but I won't have time - so thanks for a chance to play along - I'll try to remember all the rules better (gotta take my Ginkgo Biloba memory pills I tell ya)

A Little Bit of Birthday Love

I wanted to share some of the handcrafted cards I received for my birthday this year - THANK YOU to all my crafty friends for your homemade and beautiful cards! I love them all - of course nothing I love more than getting cards anyhow, and you all helped make my birthday extra special. HUGS to you all. Now - here are some amazing and beautiful cards!

You can click on any of the images to see them larger - I tried to upload small thumbnails since this will be a longer than normal post. I have linked to their blogs if they have them so maybe you can pop over and leave them some love :-)

Let me start with this card from my new and very special friend Selma. I fell in love with Selma's work from Stamp TV - she is SO talented - meanwhile we've developed one of those on-line friendships that's blossomed into more. Selma surprised me with this GORGEOUS card. The details in this card are amazing. Now check out the CUTTING detail in this close up - does this woman know how to wield a pair of scissors or what?!? And see the scoring behind the flowers??? WOW.


Next up - this spectacular little beauty from my sweet friend, Hanne from the Netherlands. We met through the Papertrey Ink forum and have since had the chance to meet in real life - in Amsterdam - what a fun day we had :-) We will be getting together again when I'm in Germany later this year. Hanne used her PTI stamps to create the background on this fabulous card. I just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this card - her young eyes can see better than mine and her background is perfect - what FUN colors. Also - check out THIS cool detail with the cork flower... is this just totally fun? (I'm casing this idea, Han!)

And now a super bright and cheery card from my close friend, Barbara. We get together regularly to stamp and it was Barbara who accompanied me on the Stampin' Cruise last fall. I love Barbara's clean lines, bright colors and simple yet adorable card using a paint chip sample (Yes, we went to Home Depot together for these!) Barbara has the greatest stash of "stuff" since she's been stampin for a long time. I love to stamp at her house *wink*

This clever little card comes from one of my best friends in California, Melodye. We have been friends for 35 years and have done ALL sorts of crafts together. She is extremely talented (you should see her tole painting projects -WOW) and sent me this cute little pocket card. I love it -- it's so fun with the black and white and red combo. Melodye also decorates the inside of her cards for that little extra "pop" - so cute.


Speaking of the cruise... this next card comes from one of my cruisin' friends, Wendy. Wendy hails from Canada and we were in the same group of stampers for our classes on the cruise. Wendy and her friends were a riot and I totally loved getting to know them all. She's a very talented stamper - you probably know her work from the Mojo Monday blog... Yep - she's one of the Mojo Makers and I am so honored to call her "friend". She made me this super cute card with the adorable On My Couch set from PTI (one set I DON'T own). I just want to curl up in that chair and read a good blog - or two.

Ok - this final card comes from another StampTV friend, Tina G. Tina and I discovered our birthdays were only one day apart so I sent HER a birthday card and she sent me this lovely thank you card for brightening HER day - isn't it great how those things work out?!?

I am so blessed by the many friends in my life. Although I only featured the handcrafted cards in this post I received many more wonderful wishes from my friends around the country (and world). Thank you to all my family and friends for making my birthday super special.

Bitty Blessing

Just a quick post today with a new baby card. I've been off the "baby card wagon" for a while since I made lots of them a while ago - so it was time for a new card since one of my Tech Support guys' wife just had their first baby.

I started with a sketch challenge over on StampTV. I also loved the recent My Time to Create Inspiration Challenge (see post here) with the blue and brown combo and I just got a new border punch :-) All those ideas are what spurred this newest Bitty Baby Blessings creation. The steps are all pretty obvious. Stamping, coloring, sponging, nesties, CB. I did have to stamp the "for baby" sentiment onto two lines to make them fit into my 1" circle.
I added a bit of matching punched CS to the inside with two of the sentiments and stamped and paper pieced the larger sailboat onto the envelope.

Thanks for looking. Have a great week.

Inspiration Mosaic Quilts

I finally got a chance to work with Melanie Muenchinger's stamp set, Inspiration Mosaic, (available through Gina K Designs). I put it to use to make two quilt cards. Now, I am NOT a sewer but I love quilts so this was my way to make a paper quilt.

This first card was designed as a thank you for my colleague, Cathy, who made a t-shirt quilt for my daughter. We gathered all of Dee's favorite t-shirts from college and Cathy made them into a spectacular t-shirt quilt. ABSOLUTELY fabulous. (Dee hasn't seen it yet so I'm not posting a pic.) I wanted my thank you card to reflect the concept of a quilt so I turned to Melanie's Inspiration Mosaic stamp.
I started out by stamping the mosaic onto a piece of white CS (my "master quilt"). Each quilt piece was stamped onto designer paper from PTI, cut out then adhered to the master quilt. Two of the solid pieces of CS were stamped in Versamark with the words thank you and grateful as a subtle sentiment on the front. Once the "master quilt" was assembled I ran the whole thing through my CB with the swirls embossing folder. A big fun flower with a button center was my final touch.
I added a couple of strips of DP to the inside with a thank you senti. The best part about this card? My quilter friend loved it so much she is framing it for her wall in her quilt room!!!

I thought this was so much fun that I made another quilt card from Inspiration Mosaic. This one is for the Color Challenge on Stamp TV this week. I used GinaK's Pumpkin Spice, Green Apple, SU! So Saffron and Vanilla CS. I followed the same process as the first one only I CB'd each piece before I adhered it, instead of the whole master quilt. For the wreath I stamped the mini sunflower image from Theresa Momber's Autumn Beauty in a circle using Butterscotch Vivid Ink then colored with copics, cut with Nesties, and sponged a bit of So Saffron. I added a fun bow from some fun fibers, and a few buttons to finish it off.

Thanks for looking! Have a great week :-)

My Time to Color Challenge MTCC06

Fall colors are coming up everywhere and today's My Time to Create challenge is no exception. We have a BEAUTIFUL color combo to work with. I love the colors in this snippet but boy did I struggle to figure out which of my papers would best represent these colors.

I finally settled on Cranberry Crisp (but once it was done I think I should have selected more rust), Ripe Avocado, White, and Dark Chocolate. Although this was a color challenge I was also drawn to the fabric here so I incorporated a lot of texture in my card using my CB. I also picked up on the fall leaf print (SU!) for my focal image and since I seem to be running low on thank you notes I used the thank you sentiment from PTI's Vintage Picnic to finish this off. I added some fun fiber in the form of a ribbon, a prima flower and button with a Rain Drop center.

I hope you will play along with the My Time Team and show us what you come up with. Please link your creation to the Mr. Linky here or on Lauren's blog so we can see your work and don't forget, Lauren will be featuring the Top Five in her My Time to Shine!

More inspiration from the talented Design Team girls can be found here:
Lauren
Kristen
Tracey
Alicia
MacKenzie
Maria
Tamara
Odette
Dana
Lisa

Thanks for stopping by - have a lovely weekend! I look forward to seeing what YOU create.

Autumn Beauty "Scraplings"

Do you know what a "scrapling" is? Even though I've been stampin for several years I had not heard that term. Apparently it means a little card made from "scraps". (Duh?!?) There doesn't appear to be a standard size for scraplings but I decided to try one - ok several! *grin* I had quite a few scraps of vanilla CS from a recent project so I went with cards that were 2 x 4-1/4 (some scraplings are only 1-1/2 x 4.) I also had some scraps of Apple Diamonds digital paper from Theresa Momber's new All About Autumn paper so I set out with those two items and my new Autumn Beauty stamp set to make some scraplings.

Here's the set I came up with - now aren't those just the cutest darn things? I've usually make 3x3 cards when I need just a note but I'm IN LOVE with these little darlings - I included a snap of them with one of them in my hand so you can get a visual size reference.

Now - these little notes are just the perfect size to tuck into a lunch box or briefcase, to lay on a pillow, to set on a keyboard or desk or punch a hole and tie on as a tag on a gift bag and in doing so you wouldn't need an envelope. BUT, I really wanted to figure out how to make an envelope for these. I turned to a video tutorial by Lauren Meader (click here) on how to make a custom sized envelope and they turned out great.

Envelope Instructions: For my scrapling which measures 2 x 4-1/4 I cut my envelope paper to 3-1/4 x 10-1/2 (don't use cardstock - it will make the envie too bulky - I just used really nice quality paper and printed my digi paper borderless - or use a DP.)

Score the 3-1/4" side 1/2 from both edges all the way down
Score the 10-1/2" edge at 3" and 7-1/2" (I made the 3" section my TOP because I wanted the sunflowers on the top folded piece.)

Cut away the excess from top and bottom.
Trim top inside corners of the 1/2" scored parts if desired
*(see pic further down of the envie with the card inside it to see what I mean about trimming the inside corners.)
Punch top edge with your favorite border punch.



Apply adhesive to bottom flap edges (I use 1/8" scor-tape so it won't let go)







*(You can see where I cut away the inside corners.)
Fold, tape, insert scrapling!

If you are giving these away as a gift you can add a small piece of scor-tape just under the flap so the recipient can seal the envie before giving it.



Four finished envelopes... Remember these cannot be mailed. I did stamp two of the envelopes with the small sunflower image - it just so happened that the way the digi paper was cut then folded two of them had plain fronts - sunflower stamp to the rescue! I stamped off once in brown then stamped three images - no time to cut, mask but they are still cute in the corner.

All packaged up as a simple little gift (although THIS batch will probably be MY gift to me to be able to use these myself.)

Want some more eye candy? Theresa has two more super Guest Designers this month and they are both sharing some fabulous ideas with you today as well. Check out Karen Knegten's page on Stamp TV and Jennie Harper's blog. Both of them have some Autumn Beauty to share with everyone as well. :-)

Thanks for looking and heartfelt thanks to Theresa for the invitation to Guest Design for her. I love this set and hope you will try it yourself. You won't be disappointed.

My Time to Inspire Challenge

Wow I can't believe it's Saturday already! This week it's My Time to Inspire challenge and it's being hosted by the lovely and talented Kristin Bueter. I love the inspiration challenges because you can do whatever you are inspired to do! It might be the colors that inspire you, it might be an element in the challenge photo, it might be the feel or the theme. The idea is to play along and show us how you were inspired by this piece. Please link your creation to Mr. Linky so we can see what you create. Remember, Lauren Meader is featuring the top five from each challenge in her "My Time to Shine" segment and it could be YOU!

I loved this week's inspiration piece - the colors, the flowers - so clean and fresh. I've been running real short on time and on thank you cards lately so I kept this one simple, clean and sweet. I used the colors and the flowers as my primary source of inspiration. I did not add ribbon or embellishments but did a bit of Cuttlebug for texture.

Paper: PTI - Spring Rain, White, Dark Chocolate

Stamps: PTI - With Sympathy (see it doesn't have to be a sympathy card but that's one magnificent flourish!) I added two additional flourishes near the top from Fancy Flourishes. Sentiment from Mega Mixed Messages. I added the dots under the sentiment - one of my favorite stamps I own are those little dots! It's from Wishing You.

Ink: PTI Dark Chocolate

Misc: white embossing powder to make the flowers and butterfly stand out.

Hop on over to the rest of the Design Team and see what they have come up with. I promise they will inspire you. Then come play along and be sure to link up with us.

Kristen
Alicia
MacKenzie
Tracey
Tamara
Dana
Lisa
Odette
Maria
Kendra
Lauren

Double Take - Blog Hop

Hi all. It's time for an Autumn Beauty Blog Hop. As one of Theresa Momber's guest designers this month I was invited to play along so here's my project. I'm calling it double take because it's the same image done up in two entirely different formats, one CAS and one with multiple layers and embellishments. I fell in love with the mailbox image the moment I saw this set. I think there's nothing more fun than going out to your mailbox and getting a card or letter - I mean email is fast and efficient but nothing is better than REAL mail. After all, isn't that why we do what we do as stampers??
When I first stamped the mailbox image and colored it I was delighted with how beautiful it was, all by itself. I quite often use the embossing with Nesties technique (you can see Gina K's video on it here) to highlight a focal image or I sometimes sponge an image while it is still inside a nestie die. So I got to thinking "wonder if I can sponge the nestie die itself and THEN emboss with it." So I inked up the smooth side of my Labels 4 metal die with dark chocolate palette ink, centered it over my image and ran it through my CB. Card #1 (on left) was born. (On my first try the ink wasn't very even so be sure to run it back and forth through the CB a couple of times.) I added two of the sentiments from Autumn Beauty and the card was done. Just CAS (which is usually really hard for me.) Here's a close up of card #1 -->

Now - card #2 came about after I did everything I had done above for card #1 BUT I decided to cut out the colored mailbox image with a larger Label 4 nestie die. I then placed the smaller die in it's embossed spot and sponged both the inside and the outside for a double layer sponge effect. I used Pumpkin Spice for my CS base, added a mat layer of Golden paper from Theresa's digital paper set, All About Autumn, scored a smaller piece of Green Apple paper to mat the image. I used a piece of CB'd Pumpkin Spice instead of a ribbon (didn't have a good color match) for horizontal interest. I've included a close up of card #2 also. Finally I finished it off with 4 golden rhinestones for a little "bling". At this point I didn't have room for a sentiment on the front so I used the inside for the sentiments. -->

SO - what do you think? Card #1 or Card #2? Have a preference? Hop along now and see the rest of the ideas from everyone who's blog hoppin' with us. You'll want to be sure to see work from Theresa's other two Guest Designers, Karen Knegten and Jennie Harper, as well as several of the senior DT gals. Since I'm not sure who's hoppin' besides Karen and Jennie, please go to Theresa's blog or Gina K's blog and follow the hop from there. Thanks for stopping by. Have a GREAT weekend. I think I'm finally ready for fall :-) Hugs y'all.

Happy Fall Y'All

It sure does seem like fall around here but I'm holding out for a few more days of summer weather, hopefully. I recently posted that I was asked to guest design for Theresa Momber and her new set Autumn Beauty this month. You can read a little bit more about me on her blog post (if you are interested.) Maybe it's a good thing that it feels like fall so I was in the mood to work with fall colors.

For this card I chose Theresa's nifty scarecrow and corn stalks for the focal image. I colored the scarecrow and corn with Copics (Theresa has a great coloring tutorial on her blog for how to color the scarecrow). I cut out the image with my new Octagonal nestie and sponged some sky and ground while the CS was still in the nestie. The entire octagon is popped up with dimensionals.

Once my focal image was done I set about designing a card and layout for it. I chose a 5x5 square since the focal image was fairly large. I wanted to work with Gina K's newest cardstock colors, Pumpkin Spice and Green Apple and I also added GKD Ivory and Chocolate Kiss layers. I used the small corn stalk image and stamped with versamark to create a patterned background on the Pumpkin, swiss dots CB for the green to add texture. Instead of a ribbon I used a snippet of some really fun fiber I found recently at Hobby Lobby - the tassles reminded me of the corn tassles and the colors were perfect for my CS.

I stamped the sentiment in the new Butterscotch Vivid ink, cut out with the petite oval nestie and sponged with So Saffron ink then mounted on a tiny scalloped pumpkin nestie. As a final touch I stamped and masked then stamped again a set of pumpkins. Colored them and then cut them out and adhered them with pop dots. The copper self adhesive nail head embellishments (GKD) were perfect accents for my cut away corners.

I have always decorated the insides of my cards so that the recipient finds something of visual interest when they open the card. I kept this one simple yet in line with the theme - I love the sentiments in this new set! Created a frame for the sentiments and then masked and stamped a couple of corn stalks.

I truly love Theresa's stamps. She is an artisite extraordinaire. The images not only stamp out sharp and crisp but the detail in the images themselves makes coloring them a joy.

Have yourselves a great week. Be sure to come back later this week on Friday evening for an Autumn Beauty Blog Hop!!! It will start at 10:00 pm CST so if you're an East Coaster then come by on Saturday morning. You'll see some fabulous creations from Theresa, the senior GKD Design Team members and a couple more guest designers!

Mojo Monday #103

It's Mojo Monday time and I'm actually posting my card ON A MONDAY!!! Woo hoo. It's SO great to have a 3 day weekend. Here's the sketch we got this week -->
I decided to flip the sketch and work with it sideways. I created my own DP with the new Verve Bountiful Backgrounds - matted them on PTI's Enchanted Evening paper (LOVE that deep blue.) I stamped my new Verve "To Risk" sentiment in Enchanted Evening ink and cut it out with nestie's Label Four then sponged some of PTI's Chamomille tea ink to make it a bit softer. I inked up my CB Swiss Dots folder with the same Chamomille ink to pull it all together and also used the ink on my paper flower so it would match. I wanted a floral accent on the card to compliment the sentiment. Final touches included a strip of Enchanted Evening bitty dot ribbon, an Enchanted Evening button with a Rain Drop for the center of the flower.

Gotta love Mojo Monday and the DT - they really do jump start my Mojo for the week :-) Thanks, girls.

My Time to Create Sketch Challenge

Happy Saturday everyone. Hope you had a great week and are ready for a super holiday weekend. This week we're happy to bring you a sketch challenge from the lovely and talented, Lauren Meader. We hope you'll play along with us and link your creation to the Mr. Linky on Lauren's blog. Lauren will be posting the TOP 5 from this week's entries in her My Time to Shine feature.

Mr. Linky can be reached from HERE also.

When I looked at this sketch I was immediately drawn to a central focal image. I was in need of a "get well" card and turned to the sentiments in Everyday Button Bits. Since it's been unseasonably cool in Chicago, (I swear last weekend was fall here!) I also wanted to work with autumn colors.

Here's the card I created from this sketch. I used the larger plaid from Autumn Abundance paper (PTI) for a warm, homespun feeling. I added a smidgen of the autumn leaves paper matted with scarlet jewel and then my main focal image (I did extend the tree with a copic and a ruler to accommodate 3 buttons) matted on dark chocolate. I sponged the main image panel before I removed it from the nestie die then added three buttons in fallish colors.

I stamped the sentiment on a simple ivory panel and added some piercing accents - wanted the sentiment to stand alone but it still needed "something".

A couple of orange snaps added the final touch. I recently read Nichole's article in the latest edition of the Papertrey News about the "Rule of Threes" which I am familiar with from graphic design concepts and as I evaluated this project I think I hit that most of the time. I did "break the rule" with only 2 orange brads but that was following the sketch :-) and I only have one yellow button but I think it works ok.

Please stop by the rest of the design team (below) to see what they have cooked up for you. Have a delightful and safe Labor Day Weekend. Hugs n Smiles....

Lauren
Alicia
Dana
Jen
Kristen
MacKenzie
Odette
Tamara
Tracey

Mojo Monday

Wow - it's Wednesday already and I am just now getting around to posting my Mojo Monday project for this week. I love how Mojo Monday really helps me jump start my ideas. I needed a birthday card - and this provided the perfect starting point. I always print out the sketch and then turn it flip it etc before deciding. This time I decided to flip the sketch on it's side.

I knew the new Verve set, Party Time would be great for a BD card so I stamped and masked so I could create a more bountiful bouquet of balloons which I colored with Copics. I worked with two of my favorite colors, Groovy Guava and Soft Sky (now retired from SU!). The flourish is from Express Yourself set by Verve. I swaped out the circle for my new Octagon nestie and did a bit of sponging while the image was still in the die.

The rest of the deets are pretty self-explanatory this time as this is a really straight forward card. Just a lovely layout from Mojo and my card is done. :-)

Thanks for taking time to stop by.