Freshly Made Sketches # 4 and Bella Talks!!!

It’s time for another challenge at Freshly Made Sketches and I just love this one.  I LOVE making tags and bookmarks.  Also love making ATC’s – Artist Trading Cards.  These little work areas suit me just fine.  I have always been fond of miniatures and have a good size collection of miniature houses.  I built a dollhouse from scratch one football season and loved the tiny furniture and accessories. Here’s the sketch:

So, I really enjoyed making this tag card.  I used Soft Suede as the main color and the extra fabulous Beau Chateau Designer Series Paper, both from Stampin’ Up! of course.  Did a little fussy-cutting and sponging.  Happy camper here.  And here’s my card:

And, since I haven’t updated you on sweet Bella lately- take a look at a video of her saying Da-Da that we took the last time we had her for the weekend.  She really gets into it…and then gets distracted by the puppy.

All supplies by Stampin’ Up!.  I am also submitting it for this week's Way To Use It Challenge # 342 at Splitcoaststampers. Enjoy!

Laundry Day

Most of my life Monday has been the first work day of the week,laundry day and my least favorite day. But, since I retired I try to keep Monday free from ANY chores, meetings or busywork.  It is MY day to enjoy NOT having to get up at 5:30 am and go to work.  I may have mentioned this before.
So, Tuesday has become Laundry Day.  Load after load of washing, folding, putting away.  And every other Tuesday I change the sheets on the beds, so there are a couple of extra loads.  Here’s how I do it:  I strip the beds and wash the linens first.  I put the clean folded sheets on the bed.  I start my clothes and as they come out of the dryer, I put them on the bed with the folded sheets.  Sometimes I fold the perma press items and just dump the rest.  My intention is to get in there around 3 or so, fold and put away, make the bed and be ready for the evening.  But noooooooooooo, that won’t happen.  At 10 pm when I head down the hall to get my bath, there on the bed will be the clean folded sheets and a HUGE pile of clean clothes everywhere.  The perma press is “hanging” on the bed posts, door frames and what have you.  Today will not be any different because I decided to get my challenge card done.  And I adapted it to work for two challenges.

First, the terrific KAPOW Kreative Challenge #2 over at Carrie Gaskin’s awesome blog, Artistic Avenger.  It was a sketch challenge this week- here’s the cute sketch.  I just love it and knew right away what I wanted to do.
But before I started I ran over to Splitcoast Stampers and checked out the color challenge for today.  The colors fit perfectly for my card:  Cherry Cobbler, Pool Party, Early Espresso and I added Naturals Ivory for my neutral.  Put first ink to the snowman image from Snow Much Fun, did a little fussy-cutting (love, love to fussy-cut) ran the Perfect Pennant die through my Big Shot, added a few more elements and Voila! here ya go…..


And finally, I am going to submit to the So Shelli monthly challenge for September.  Shelli Gardner, co-founder of Stampin' Up! is looking for Christmas cards this month.  I think this one fits- don't you?

All supplies are Stampin’ Up!  I hope this day has been grand for you.

A Perfect Princess!!!

I just got the coolest email from sweet Rita, one of the terrific designers on the new Freshly Made Sketch Challenge blog. I was chosen a Perfect Princess for my Up In The Air Birthday card submission this week!!!  How neat is that!  You can see my card on the following post and you can check out all the Princesses and the Queen of Clean, plus many other gorgeous creations here at Freshly Made Sketches.
Thank you ladies for your hard work putting this site together and for all your encouragement.

Freshly Made Birthday

I have been working on this card for days…and I think I went a little overboard.  I am really a Clean and Simple gal, so when I do make a more intense card I just can’t stop with the embellishments and textures.  And this card has it all!  The image panel looked a little plain, so I fringed the top and bottom.  Used the new cute Houndstooth embossing folder from Stampin’ Up! for the first time and cut some little buttons  for the corner.  Then, since I was on a roll, I ran the sentiment through the crimper.  I probably used 50 Stampin’ dimensionals – everything is “popped up.”  But, after all that, I really like this card- it will be perfect for a “little” friend birthday.  Here’s the sketch we were given for the Freshly Made Sketches Challenge # 3:

And, here’s my card:

All supplies by Stampin’ Up!  I hope this is the beginning of a wonderful week for you.

Super Hero–Yep, that’s me!!! And I am honored!

 

 

A few days ago I submitted a card to the brand new terrific KA-POW Kreative Challenge hosted by one of my stamping heroes, Artistic Avenger Carrie Gaskin.  And this morning, I was tickled to see that I had been named the very first “Super Hero” for that card.  Wowza!  You can find my card on this post.  Here is the cute badge that I get to display on my sidebar.  Click on it to go to Carrie’s blog- you will find totally awesome creations and great stamping and papercrafting tips.  Thanks, Carrie for this honor.

 

 

And, here is a new picture of Isabella with her Poppy.  Wonder who’s the happiest in this picture?

TBT- Autumn Days

Here's a rerun from three years ago today.  And even though most of the Stampin' Up! products have retired, it is still one of my all time favorite cards- especially the color combination.  Fall is my favorite season- because of the beautiful colors and the crisp "football" weather.  Enjoy!

Three challenge cards this weekend….pretty awesome for me!  A terrific bunch of fellow Stampin’ Up! Demonstrators started a new challenge blog called Freshly Made Sketches.  I was out of pocket last week so I missed the first one, but hope to be able to play often from now on.
With fall in the air, I’ve started thinking about my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving, so I decided to pull out my Autumn Days stamp set and use my favorite fall colors to make week #2 challenge card.  I used Cajun Craze, More Mustard and Concord Crush along with Naturals Ivory and the brand new rectangle frame embossing folder and also the lattice folder.  Did a little fussy-cutting and added ribbon and twine.  Hope you like.

Stamping 411 Saturday Sketch Challenge and My Crafty Picks

It’s been awhile since I have participated in challenges and now I have done two in two days!  Here is my card for Stamping 411’s Saturday Sketch Challenge #221.  Participating in challenges is a good way to get your creative mojo running and I have enjoyed every minute of it.  Here’s the sketch:

and here’s my card.  I really don’t “do” Halloween, but I loved the owl image in this cute Stampin’ Up! Dark and Dreary stamp set, so I purchased the My Digital Studio digital stamp set just to get this little owl.  The set also comes with the cute sentiment, a raven, spider and a chandelier.  I am kinda addicted to the little rolled roses….tutorial this week, I promise.  Used that cute oval frame embossing folder again along with a couple of images from the Creative Elements set, some Basic Jewel rhinestones and a black pearl (colored with a marker).  The lace is from last year’s Holiday Mini. 

Fellow stamper and Stampin’ Up! demonstrator Tiffany Bauer hosts a terrific blog, My Crafty World, and each week chooses stamping/papercraft creations from around the blogosphere for inclusion in her Sunday My Crafty Picks.  I was so excited to get an email from her this week choosing my Ka-Pow card (in the post below) as one of her picks this week.   Check out the cute little badge on my sidebar.   You can check out her blog and other picks at My Crafty World.  I hope you take a look…she’s terrific.

As always, you can purchase all the product used in this card at my Stampin’ Up! website.  Just click here:

KA–POW a Brand.New.Terrific.Challenge.

The Ultimate Artistic Avenger, aka Carrie Gaskin, one of my very favorite paper artists and sister Stampin’ Up! demonstrator has started a new challenge for her stamping followers.  The KA-POW challenge will be issued every other Tuesday for now and you can read more right here.

KA-POW Kreative Challenge # 1 is a very cool color challenge.  Here are the challenge colors:

And, here’s my card using an awesome new stamp set from the new Stampin’ Up! Idea Book and Catalog.  Creative Elements has so many great images- the cards practically make themselves!  I used all the colors above plus some Naturals White, a few Basic Rhinestones and Pearls, the Perfect Polka Dots textured embossing folder and the oval from the new Designer Frames folder duo.  And, I love, love this card.  I did a lot of distressing in honor of Carrie’s style, and rolled a few corners.  I hope it makes her smile a bit.  (Don’t you love these little rolled flowers?  They are too easy…I will tell you how next time.)

I will be back soon with news about Isabella! and our marvelous Alaskan cruise.