Dynamic Duos # 68

                                          
                                                    
Do you see that we get to pick our second color for this challenge?  Well, there is nothing like purple and green...love it!  If you want to select your own color and play along, go HERE to the Dynamic Duos Blog and show us what you like to pair up with the plum color!

I had a group of ladies over for lunch (we all went on a pilgrimage to Medjugorje, Croatia three years ago) last week and they bought some of my cards...all the sympathy's and the praying for you cards all left with them!  Is it that time of our life where we are in more need of those cards?  Sad to think about.  But I thought I should start adding to my stash.

stamps:  Beautiful Butterflies
dies:  Beautiful Butterflies, circle nestabilities
paper:  fine linen, spring moss

inks and pens:  PTI plum pudding (stamped off once), memento pear tart marker (dash lines)
misc:  perfect pearls: forever violet,  forever green
                                                      

Color Throwdown # 257

Well, I made two cards because I wasn't sure if I liked the first one, and now I am not sure I really like the second one either.  My father raised "mums" which is what this set is called"  Mum's the Word from PTI.  I really don't think mums are pink, or at least not a hot pink, but in the world of card making, I think anything goes, right?  But the colors did bother me a bit...so I tried making a second card:

So this one has the colors of mum that is more true, (except maybe that little one that has a bit of pink...do you see it over on the side?  Oh well, the challenge was to use these colors:

                                          

                                                                                                                                                                             So if you want to play along with this challenge, go HERE to access the blog and see the other cards the design team made.

                                               

Freshly Made Sketches # 101

You can access the Freshly Made Sketches Challenge here.  I used the Remember set from Clearly Besotted.  The sentiment is from PTI round & Round.  The bottom banner is made with the Autumn Pattern Pieces stamped with MFT colorbox red hot.  The card stock is soft stone.

                                 

MFT ~ Wednesday Stamp Club Sketch Challenge

My granddaughter who lives next door to me, has a best friend who lives down the street.  They are both into horses.  Her BFF actually has a couple of horses and Lily often gets to go riding with her and help groom the horses.  Her friend's birthday is coming up soon, so I thought I would make a card for her...I used everything from "Howdy"...I stamped the background with some of the fun smaller stamps in the set on kraft paper.  The star up in the corner was actually made from some "Delight" clay that I rolled out and dried.  It is lighter weight than a button and not as thick.  I used a circle die cut after stamping it on the clay...worked perfectly.

If you want to play along you can go HERE to the MFT blog.
                                                               

SAF 2013 ~ Whipping up Scent-sational Cards

Still playing catch up with the SAF 2013 Stamp-a-faire.  In our package, we were given a really cute stamp set that will be available for purchase on the September 15 release.  It is all about scratch and sniff!! How fun is that?  The top card was stamped with the pumpkin and then embossed with a mixture of clear embossing powder and pumpkin pie spice from the kitchen pantry!  It is a ratio of 1 - 2 (one part spice or flavoring, 2 parts clear embossing powder)  you can use just about anything...just nothing with SUGAR as it may scorch and smell really bad when you use the heating tool to emboss.  The gingerbread man was embossed with a combination of cinnamon and ginger and then of course the clear embossing powder.

There are cherries in the stamp set and those I used a cherry flavored Kool-Aid packet...be sure it is sugar free (which probably most are and you add the sugar when you are making Kool-Aid for the kiddos).  I made a card and then it sold immediately and I neglected to get a picture of it, so I guess I will have to make another one because that one did smell pretty good!!

SAF 2013 ~ Custom Accents from the kitchen

I know...the SAF is over...boo hoo...but Lin and I are continuing to play.  Tomorrow morning we are hosting a luncheon for a group of ladies that went on a pilgrimage with us three years ago to Medjugorje, Croatia...This is a reunion of sorts for us, most of the ladies go to my church, so I see them often, but since Lin lives in the Seattle area she doesn't.  We hosted a gathering last year also during the time she was here for the SAF 2012.

We wanted to give little treats to our ladies, so we bought some dark chocolate dove pieces and packaged them in the glassine bags.  I had some verve cross stamps and lots of bible verses too, so we stamped the crosses on the half and half die cuts, we also die cut the crosses with our matte shrink film, colored them with an assortment of copics and then baked them in the kitchen!  They turned out so cute...we added them to the stamped cross, punched a hole in the corner and tied it with twine.  Do you all remember shrinky dinks?  I remember doing this with my daughters when they were young...so much fun.  Thank you Nichole for bringing this back...I am already thinking of things for Christmas to add to cards!! (not that Nichole will see this post! ha ha!!)

Merry Monday # 72

For this sketch challenge I used some paper from PTI called Holiday Flourish and Swirls.  I stamped the Background Basics:  Christmas on the side with red ink.  I stamped the sentiment from tremendous Treats:  Christmas with versamark and then used white embossing powder.  the little dot is actually a "snowball" that I got for Christmas from my BFF two years ago...love those little blings!  the red snowflake was die cut and then stamped and embossed with red zing powder.  If you want to play along, you can go  HERE  to access the challenge.
                                                      

SAF 2013 ~ Sweet Sugar Coated Embellishments

It is all about cooking up great things in the craft room...sugar on cards?  Noooo, it is glitter.  I adored Danielle's card...so I took the thankful die and added my strips of scor-tape and then poured the glitter on it...I die cut it with terra cotta tile paper.  The bottom paper is from PTI First Fruits Collection with a strip of chocolate brown scallop and a piece of twine at the top.

It is now 10:50 PM PDT and I still cannot get onto Nichole's blog to post any cards...I keep getting the error...so I cannot link up the card or even link up the place to send you to see the video or the technique, I am sorry about that, but I am even more sorry that I cannot link up any of the cards I have been working on for this SAF.  It is really disappointing to learn these fun techniques and then make a card of my own and not be able to participate in all the contests.

A closing picture...

I know we need to post a picture of us on the night of the SAF...well, this is what Lin and I looked like because we had to leave in the early afternoon for a wedding!!  My nephew got married at a location that was over an hour's drive away.  And we drove my 92 year old father, he needed to be there a bit early to have some family pictures taken.  Since Lin and I have been friends for over 56 years, she is definitely part of our family as I am part of her family.  The location was absolutely gorgeous...up above Hood River with a beautiful view of Mt. Hood.

The very happy bride and groom

SAF 2013 ~ Mixing Mists to Match

This technique was making our own mists.  I was given the ripe avocado reinker and my BFF Linda was given scarlet jewel reinker, so we made up both in our spray bottles.  We used Dawn's technique of putting water in the bottle then adding about 10 drops or so of the reinkers.  I played around with about four different things, put it away and came back to it...finally made a card that I like.  I used both misters on the card, just the scarlet jewel on the hearts, added a strip of ripe avocado pattern paper and a strip of hibiscus burst paper, then wrapped it with some twine and placed the hearts with dimensional tape.  The sentiment is from happy Hydrangea.  Love this card!

SAF 2013 ~ Sprinkle of Salt Card #2

This is a square card using the same water color and salt technique.  You can see how the salt made little spots on the card.  Again, I wet the water color paper, then brushed on Hawaiian shores and aqua mist reinkers, went back over it again with water and then sprinkled on some kosher salt...let it sit for about an hour, brushed it off, then dried it with my heating tool.  I added some twine and a Delight Clay button that I made earlier and stamped with a BB: Text style in grey ink.  the sentiment is from Side by Side.  And sorry I cannot link back to the Capture the Moment blog to bring you to this site to watch the videos and try this technique...I think Nichole's blog is overwhelmed with so many crafters it cannot handle it...I have been unable to post anything to her blog at all today!  In fact I cannot even get on her blog.

SAF 2013 ~ Card 1 Sprinkle of Salt

This was a water color technique using salt...and I had better results with kosher salt than either table or sea salt.  I wet the watercolor paper really well, then used the wet brush dipped in the reinkers to brush it across the wet paper.  I used summer sunrise, berry sorbet and raspberry fizz.  the butterfly was made witht he Delight clay and stamped and then colored in with some copics.  The sentiments is from Side by Side.

I am having major problems staying on Nichole's blog, ever since this morning when my BFF and I tried posting pictures we have been unable to do so.  We can't even go to her blog and watch the videos.  As soon as we scroll down just a bit, an error notice comes up, we go into the task manager and delete the flash plug in, try again and the same error comes up.  I tried my tablet and the same thing.  My husband told me to go into his computer and try it, which I did and the same error came up, he then tried our business computer and it was the same problem.  I was able to go to You Tube and watch a few of the videos, and I can watch some of the videos the designers posted on their blog, but I cannot post anything to Capture the Moment.  So even though I am making cards for the challenges ( I am only up to Sprinkle with Salt) I cannot post anything to the blog...bummer.  I notified customer service and apparently I am only the second one to ask about this problem, although I did see several comments on the forum about this error issue.  According to Julie, she does not have a problem getting onto Nichole's blog.  So I guess that is just the way it will go this year...I have a feeling it has to do with the inlinkz...I hope this issue gets solved for future years...maybe just sending a link to the Papertrey You Tube and directing everyone there so her blog doesn't get jammed up with people not only watching the numerous videos, but also posting the cards there...something to think about for next year, I would think!

SAF ~ Rolled Dough Design

Melissa Phillips demonstrated the Delight dough using vellum.  I rolled out the dough sandwiched between two pieces of vellum.  I die cut them using the Beautiful Blooms die several times with both colors.  Afterwards I immediately separated the vellum which allowed some of the dough to stick to both sides.  At that point I set them aside to dry.  As they dry, they roll up and curl into themselves...so cool!  I layered two of the large blooms and two of the small blooms.  I die cut another small flower for the center...but since I had also rolled out some of the delight dough and left that to dry over night, I die cut a button shape with it and stamped with BB: text style.  The leaves were done the same way.

I guess I should mention that the dough is actually white, but I added some reinkers to the dough and kneaded it in until it was nice and smooth, although I think it would be a nice look to leave it more mottled.  That is how I achieved the different colors.  I added some Bakers twine under the flower.

SAF ~ Tea Staining Techniques

Lot of great techniques and videos going on over at Capture the Moment blog.  I used Heather Nichols technique of dying some scraps of PTI felt in black tea water...also a bit of lace that I had in my stash.  I die cut the notebook die from some stiff almost like burlap but not as thick...I really don't know what it is or what it is used for...Anyway...layered it on a sweet blush paper, added my die cut flowers from the smallest Beautiful Blooms die and leaves from Simple Sunflower.  I used the linen IP and embossed the kraft sheet.  The sentiment is from Emebellishments stamp set.

2nd card for the August Papertrey Blog Hop

This is the 6th and last color and sketch challenge.  I decided to go with a baby card.  My friend brought this stamp down with her (she was here for the SAF!!  so much fun!)...the Polka dot Parade # 4...so I inked up that cute bear with the brown and stamped the sentiment in black.  the stripes were made with Super Stripes stamp set.
Here is the sketch and color combo:
                                                      

Papertrey August Blog Hop Card # 4

Here is the sketch for this card..there are six sketches and color combos:
          


I used the above PTI colors with the Bigger Blooms set and the Mat Stack # 3 die and the mega die too.                                                         

Breakfast Bake & Take # 2

Card Number two for the breakfast Bake and Take...I used the new stamp called Reasons to Smile...

Breakfast Bake and Take

The festivities have started over at Capture the Moment Blog ...for breakfast we had to cook up a color combo and sketch and make a quick card!  I don't know about the "quick" part of it, but a card I did make.  Here is the sketch and the color combo I needed to use...


 

Rolling Out the Dough!

Here I am rolling out the dough to prep it for tomorrow's card making...sure wonder how this is going to roll through the die cut machine!!

2013 SAF Ready to whip up some good recipes

Greetings everyone from West Linn, Oregon...just south of Portland!  I am on the right, my BFF Linda, from Maple Valley is on the left.  We went to the very first SAF in Cinncinati and had SOOOO much fun, we were looking forward to going every year...and thank you Nichole for coming up with this brilliant format for allowing everyone world wide to participate in this wonderful event.  We think you, Nichole and your designers are so fabulous and creative, we love learning from you every week on the Make it Monday...and now we get a whole day of playing with you!!  Thank you so much.

So we have watched the first video and have been introduced to all the beautiful ladies and have seen where they perform their magic!   We are ready to start our PREP for tomorrow!!  See you soon!

Seize the Sketch # 2 & Seize the Birthday

This is the second sketch for Seize the Sketch and I am also adding this to Seize the Birthday .

                                                                     stamps:  Birthday Bash, Sketch Shapes, Flower Garden (the strings!)
   paper:  canyon clay, ocean tides, MME "dolled up", soft stone
   ink:  simply chartreuse, canyon clay, blueberry sky, versamark
   misc:  white embossing powder

Freshly Made Sketches...100th sketch! and Seize the Birthday

Congratulations on your 100th post, Freshly Made Sketches...it is almost like a birthday, right?  so I pulled out my Make A Wish die and cut out some felt to make it a little special!  I then used my friends Background Basics:  Birthday fun to add the strip of birthday words and the gifts....the pattern paper is from American Craft.  The sentiment was selectively stamped from Boutique Borders:  Birthday!  I added a row of gifts on the envelope and the inside of the card!  If you want to play along with this 100th sketch go HERE to Freshly Made Sketches .  This is the very first sketch they used and they brought it back for the 100th sketch!!
                                                   
And I am entering this also into the Seize the Birthday Challenge, you can go HERE to access that challenge.

Colour Q Challenge # 203

Fun colors this week for the ColourQ Challenge.

I used Rosie Posie for the big flower and leaves, and Beautiful Blooms for the smaller flowers.  The top portion was stamped with the new PTI Autumn Pattern Pieces.  The sentiment is from Ruby Rose.  I die cut the small scallop border from a PTI die. 

                                                                                                                                Ink used:  memento Bahama Blue,  PTI blueberry sky, dark chocolate, simply chartreuse                                                                       
                                                             

MFT This Weeks Card Sketch Challenge

The post just before this one was for last weeks sketch, which I put on my blog Monday night, but neglected to add it to the MFT link!  I was so bummed Tuesday when I realized what I did!  I thought I better get right on it this week and get it posted and linked up before I forget!!

This little one is a Pure Innocence "poppy" stamp that I colored with copics.  I stamped the poppy a second time, colored, then cut it out and adhered it with a dot.  My banners were stamped using the MFT Washi stamp set then hand cut to make the banner.  My pattern paper paper is from American Crafts.  If you want to link up to this MFT challenge you can go HERE to play along.
                                              

MFT Wednesday Challenge # 137

I am joining the MFT sketch challenge for the first time.  I used Roses and stamped them with MFT colorbox red hot,  PTI summer sunrise, harvest gold, and the leaves in ripe avocado.  Here is the sketch which comes out every Wednesday:
and you can link up HERE.

Merry Monday # 71 and Festive Friday

What a surprise this morning to hear my BFF, Linda get all excited about being the TOP winner for last week's Merry Monday and I was right below her with a top pick!  I tell you, it made her day (and mine too)!!

This week we have a new sketch and we do try to make our Christmas cards throughout the year...sure takes the stress off and we have fun doing it one at a time all year long!

I used the cute snowman from Tremendous Treats and colored him with copics; I punched some circles and ran them through my zyron machine and then added glitter to them...Oh it makes such a mess, but this is such a sparkly and fun card!  They are snowballs, you know!  That is what you need to build a snowman..the sentiment is from In the Meadow.

HERE is the link to play along with this weeks Merry Monday....and here is the sketch to get you inspired!  And since KIDS love to build snowmen, make snowballs and have snowballs fights, I thought I would add this card to the Festive Friday Challenge!!  Go check them both out and have some fun!