Taylored Expression Cupcake Challenge 70

I'm excited that I'm able to participate in Taylor's Cupcake Challenge this week. This is another fun sketch challenge that I like to do when I can! Since Father's Day is just around the corner, I decided to create a Father's day card for this sketch challenge. I plan on stocking up on Father's Day cards and masculine cards in general, so I'll be posting these in the coming days to share some guy-type card ideas with you all. Here's the one I created for this challenge. I'm definitely getting my money's worth on the "And Many Mower" set!I love using the Texturz Small Dots embossing plate and circle punches to create that golf ball look.

Here's the recipe:
*Pacific Point, Kiwi Kiss, Summer Sun, Chocolate Chip and Whisper White cardstock
*Good Morning Sunshine DSP
*Harlequin and Small Dots Texturz plates
*And Many Mower stamp set
*Garden Green and Pacific Point Classic Ink Pads
*Garden Green, Old Olive, Mellow Moss, Ballet Blue, Going Gray, and Basic Gray Markers
*Sponge daubers, 1 3/8" Circle Punch, corner rounder

What do you think? Thanks for stopping by!

40 is the new 30

It's a chilly and misty Sunday morning here in Southern CA by the beach. I'm trying to fire myself up for a run after yesterday's all day eating fest from the Birthday Celebrations we attended! But first, I thought I'd do a post.

Today, I am sharing a couple of cards I made for 2 of my cousins that just turned 40 this past week. It's funny how your perspective changes as you approach certain ages. Back in my 20s, I thought 40 was SOOO old, but now that it's an age that's getting closer for me too...well, my new mantra is 40 is the new 30! Funny, huh? But since I'm not quite there yet, I can poke fun at my cousins who are. Here are the cards I made, using the Cheers to You stamp set.This is another version of the "step" or "accordion" type of card, called a "side step card," inspired by Yvonne Metz. I used the Rockabilly Specialty paper on this one, and I thought the skull and cross bones paper added the touch I was going for (smile!).
For this card, I used the Sizzix Textured Embossing Plates for the background. Wondering what I used for the "40"? These are from a Cuttlebug alphabet set called Red Tag Sale and they work beautifully with the Big Shot as well! All other supplies I used are Stampin'Up! (I used the Matchbox and Pennant Bigz XL dies too...love me the Big Shot!) Hope you have a great day! It's time for me to go burn some calories...

The Weekend is here!

Hello there - and Happy Saturday! We've got all kinds of birthdays to celebrate today - my aunt's and my cousin's, so I thought I'd get my post up, because believe it or not, I have to make their Birthday cards still! I know, so last minute, but I have something in mind that I just need to translate on paper. But, for today's post, I am sharing a card I made for a co-worker of mine who's last day was yesterday. He's an avid golfer, so I thought I would incorporate that theme on the card as well. So...here's what I came up with:I've been wanting to make one of these accordion cards, so when I decided on the golf theme, I thought it would be a fun 3-D looking card to make with this layout. Here's a close up of the stamped image and the sponging I did for the sky in Cool Carribean and for the grass hill in Garden Green, I first ripped up a shape of the hill out of cardstock and used the negative piece to sponge in the actual hill with a sponge dauber. Love those things - I'm glad I rediscovered them in my stamp drawer! What do you think? Hope you like it!

Here's the recipe:
*And Many Mower and Sincere Salutations stamp sets
*Small Dots Texturz Plates for the big shot, Daisies #2 Bigz die (for the sun)
*Wild Wasabi (retired), Whisper White, Basic Black, Sahara Sand, and Baja Breeze card stock
*Chocolate Chip, Cool Carribean (retired), and Garden Green Classic Ink Pads
*Ballet Blue, Sahara Sand, Basic Gray, Garden Green markers
*1/2" circle punch, Summer Sun corduroy button, Word Windo punch

Thanks for stopping by today. Enjoy your weekend!

Freebie Friday 21 is here!

Hello there and TGIF! Even though it was a short week, with the Memorial Day Holiday in the US, I am super happy that Friday is here. Today's giveaway is another Matchbox box - this time filled with scallop oval, scallop circle, and large oval tags punched out of the Parisian Breeze paper. I just love this paper - isn't it so pretty?! There's a peek-a-boo view of the inside, thanks to Stampin'Up!'s printed window sheets and the curly label punch to dress up the little window. Here's a picture of the tags and the box, separately. As you can see the tags are an assortment of papers from the Parisian Breeze DSP.
And this picture shows it all packaged up and ready to go for the winner of this week's giveaway!

Are you ready? To play for this week's Freebie Friday, please leave me a comment on this post with your email address or blog url (basically, enough information so I can contact you) by Midnight Saturday, May 30th. The winner will be announced on Monday's blog post, so you can check back then. You can leave me a comment about anything or you can answer the following question: What are you looking forward to most about summer?

I'm looking forward to going on vacation in July! I'll tell you more as it gets closer! Looking forward to reading your comments, In the meantime, hope you all have a fabulous day! :)

Whoooo's there!?

Hello all! I'm excited to share a preview of my Button Eyed Owl card design that I'll be doing a series of in my Etsy store (hopefully, I'll be able to post them in the next day few days, so I'd love for you to come by and check it out!). I basically "tore up" my branch and used punches for my owl. Her eyes are made of buttons threaded with a thin strip of cardstock. I did use the Big Shot though, for the leaves and the flourish that my girly owl is sitting on. The flowers are from the trio flower punch. Hope you like it! Thanks for popping by!

Parisian Butterfly Mojo

Whew! I just finished my Mojo Monday 88 card, after many iterations of it in my head! I had planned to use one of the butterflies I'd cut using the Beautiful Butterflies die cut from my scraps of DSP, but I just hadn't quite figured out my color scheme and embellishments until now...so this is the card I finally created. Here's a full view:As you can probably tell, my current favorite die has been the Beautiful Butterflies Bigz die. It is just so versatile! I've been cutting out a bunch of butterflies using all kinds of cardstock colors and DSP and they are all so fun! It's just a matter of time before I figure out more projects to use them in. For this project, I dressed up the butterfly a bit using the Pretties kit half pearls. I like the vintage-y feel of this card. It might be hard to see in the picture, but the bottom Whisper White piece of cardstock is embossed with the Large Dots Texturz plates. A fun, but subtle accent. Hope you like the card!

Here's the recipe - all supplies Stampin'Up!:
*Parisian Breeze Designer Series Specialty Paper, Baha Breeze, Whisper White, and Kraft cardstock
*Great Friend and Baroque Motifs stamp sets
*Baja Breeze and Chocolate Chip Classic Stamp pads
*Pennant Bigz XL die cut, Beatiful Butterflies die cut, Texturz plates, and 1 3/4" circle punch
*Chocolate Chip double stitched grosgrain ribbon, filigree flower, rhinestone brad, Pretties kit

Here's a picture of the Mojo Sketch 88 for you to compare. What a great layout, don't you think? I might use it to create some Father's Day cards - I am envisioning some sort of golf or beer type images along with it. But right now, I think I'm gonna have to call it a night and let my creative juices mull it over in my sleep. Thanks for stopping by!

I'll see you tomorrow!

Just a quick post

Hi there! Boy, is it time to get back to the work week already?! Well, before I get going, I thought I'd make a quick post. Today I'm sharing my first wallet card that I made - which is still a work in progress - but so far, I'm pretty happy with it! Here are a couple pictures for now and I'll give you guys more details later...
Hope you like it! Have a great day and I'll see you later!

Freebie Friday 20 Winner announcement!

Morning all! Happy Memorial Day! It's so nice to have the day off. I'm enjoying my cup of coffee as I type this. It's currently foggy outside at my house, but hopefully that will burn off and we'll have another beautiful and clear day in Southern CA. But enough of the weather - It's about that time to announce the Freebie Friday winner of this cute little box and tags! It's a fun little project to make using the Matchbox Bigz XL die. Ok - so let's announce the winner for this week! Are you ready?

And this week's lucky winner is....
fortunately (AKA Elizabeth Fortuna)! Congrats, Elizabeth! I had the chance to meet Elizabeth in person last month - she also happens to be in the same demonstrator group as me under Michelle Halleen! It's so nice to meet blogging friends in person. :)

Well, I hope you all have a great day! Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by!

Kwerner Color Inspiration 53!

Yes, I'm posting another card! I love me the color challenges, and it seems like for whatever reason, I feel more creative on the weekends. Maybe because I can take time to catch my breath and decompress from the work week! The colors for this week's challenge are definitely ones I don't use together frequently. They actually remind me of the Pittsburgh Steelers colors. I was drawn to do an ocean theme...maybe I'm channeling the beach theme from last week still! Let's hope - it seemed to work for me then! ;) Here's the card I came up with.I created my ocean waves by ripping a piece of cardstock to make a jagged edge. Then I took my "edge" template and a sponge and sponged in my ocean onto the Whisper White cardstock oval.
Here's a close up view - my sailboat was made from scraps! I cut down a 1 3/4" circle for the base and the sails are made from little pieces of Summer Sun and Pacific Point scraps. I also like that I got to use the Oval Scallop Frame - I've had the die for a while, but sadly, it hasn't been part of my rotation. Now that I've brought it out, maybe I'll figure out a way to use it more often!

Here's the recipe:
*Cheep Talk stamp set
*Frame, Oval Scallop Bigz die
*Pacific Point, Summer Sun, Real Red, Whisper White cardstock and Basic Black Textured Card Stock
*1/4" circle punch, Pacific Point striped ribbon, jumbo grommet, summer sun corduroy button

Thanks for popping by! Enjoy your day ;)

Raspberry Suite 7 Card Challenge

Good morning and Happy Sunday! I was excited to see that Dawn posted this week's Raspberry Suite 7 challenge yesterday, though it took me a little while to come up with a card idea using those colors. I rarely use Always Artichoke, but when I discovered that it's one of the colors in the To The Nines DSP, I decided to try and incorporate one of the paper designs in my card. Ultimately, I think the Peonies in Dawn's picture inspired my card! My latest fascination has been to create those distressed flowers, so you'll see that I carried that over into this card as well. Here's what I came up with:The Stampin'Up! colors are a just a tad more muted than the colors in Dawn's picture, but I think the overall effect is one of a Shabby Chic look - hence how I came up with the name of this card, which I'm calling Shabby Chic Rose Red Peonies. Here's a close up of the flowers. They really are a lot of fun to make!

Here's what I used (all supplies Stampin'Up! except where indicated):
*Certainly Celery, Always Artichoke, and Rose Red cardstock
*To the Nines DSP, Rose Red DSP
*Wow Flowers and Central Park stamp set
*Top Note Bigz die, Matchbox Bigz XL die, buttons sizzlit, Texturz plates
*Circle cutter, 1 3/4", 1 3/8" and 1" circle punches
*Rose Red Grossgrain ribbon, skinny green ribbon (not SU!), brads

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you like it!

Wow! I made it In The Spotlight!

I am so giddy right now - the stars must have aligned or something this week! My butterfly and polka dots card got picked for Dawn McVey's Raspberry Suite 6 In the Spotlight! Woohoo!It's the one labeled "B"! How cool is that!? I'm so happy! :) Definitely a memorable Memorial Day weekend! And with that, I will leave you all to enjoy the rest of your weekend. Hope you're having a fabulous time!

My first personal purchase on Etsy!

I'm excited to share my first personal purchase on Etsy! You may have seen these 2 flower frogs make their debut in my Freebie Friday giveaway photo as the background props that held up the gift tags, but I thought they deserved to be showcased on their own as well! I am really happy with my first purchase on Etsy! I found these vintage flower frogs on www.robertagrove.etsy.com. I've seen these used in a handful of blogs I visit often and I like that they're a functional sort of prop that also adds character to the card and photo as well. So, as soon as I saw these 2 frogs on etsy and had the opportunity to buy, I decided to scoop these up! They are really cool and a nice, heavy weight. I love how they photograph too - it's a fun vintagey feel they bring to the picture.

Have you checked out Etsy yet? It's a fun marketplace that sells handmade items, and unique vintage items as well. Definitely worth a look through if you haven't seen it yet. I'm still getting my bearings around the site...and I know I need to continue developing my site and make it look more like a shop as well! Bear with me and I promise I'll get there! If you have a chance though, definitely go check out the main Etsy site - I think it's worth the while. In the meantime, enjoy your Memorial Day weekend!

Yay - it's time for Freebie Friday!

Ok - so it looks like I can't count...my last week's Freebie Friday should have been 19, though I did catch myself on Monday when I announced the winner. So to stay on track, today's Freebie Friday is the big #20 already! Are you ready to see today's fun giveaway? Here it is:
It's the Matchbox Bigz die and 2 little tags that fit nicely inside. The tags are 2 1/2" x 1 7/8", and the box is 2 3/4" x 2" x 3/4". I learned how to do the distressed flowers from Chat's blog and so I had to try them out. They remind me of the little flower embellishments they have on clothes these days (particularly, J.Crew comes to mind!). Here's a close up of the Matchbox die cut with the distressed flower. Hope you like it!

Are you ready to play for this week's freebie? To play for this week's Freebie Friday, please leave me a comment on this post with your email address or blog url (basically, enough information so I can contact you) by Midnight Saturday, May 23rd. The winner will be announced on Monday's blog post, so you can check back then. You can leave me a comment on whatever you like, or you can answer the following question - What's your favorite flower? I'd have to go with ROSES :) There are so many varieties of them, I'd have to say I love the whole LOT. That was an easy question. If you want to answer another one, you can tell me what you're getting your Dad for Father's Day...I need ideas!

Have a great Friday!

How exciting!

Wow! I just discovered that my Baja Beach Challenge card made it to Kristina Werner's Top 20 for her Color Challenge 52 this week! How cool is that! (Yay - imagine me smiling from ear to ear!) Here's a snippet of the top 20 cards that you can check out on Kristina's blog:Just thought I'd share the fun news....It's getting late for me, so I better get going...g'night for now.

Sweet Little Scalloped Flower Bag

Isn't this a sweet little Scalloped Flower Bag? I really liked how it came out - such a fun and cheerful flower AND it's a BAG! This is a GREAT project for the Big Shot! I used the Big Shot to create everything but the center of the flowers (3/4" circle), leaves (scallop oval punch) and the ribbon handle (Old Olive Grosgrain ribbon and brads)! It makes such a cute little purse for a little girl or it could also be used as a favor, gift packaging, or a decorative accent on your desk! This project didn't even require any stamping, believe it or not. Here are a couple more pictures - as you can see, this project is very photogenic... ...it looks pretty just sitting on my couch.
Here's a side view picture. I used the "Walk in the Park" DSP for the "bag" portion, which is made from the Bag with Scallop Bigz die - all I did was cut off the scallop part. Hope you like it! Here's the recipe:

*Scallop Circle, Daisies #2, Flower Layers, and Bag with Scallop Big Shot dies
*Scallop Oval, and 3/4" circle punches
*Regal Rose, Cameo Coral, Shimmery White, and Apricot Appeal cardstock
*Walk in the Park DSP
*Grosgrain Ribbon and brads, sticky strip adhesive and dimensionals

Thanks for coming by and visiting!

Parisian Breeze Cardbox Set

I've been wanting to make one of these pizza-box style card boxes for a while, and this past weekend, I got a chance to make one! I created this as a little hostess gift for our friends that had us over for dinner. Here are a few more pics:

This is a CASE of a card I had done a while back, but I changed up the color scheme a little. It's a simple and classic layout that looks great with any images and color combos.

Here's a look at all 4 of the All-Occasion cards I made. I didn't stamp a sentiment so they could use it however they wanted.

This picture gives you a look inside the cardbox and how all the cards and envelopes fit in the box really nicely! These are 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" cards and the box measures 4 1/2" x 5 3/4" x 1".

And last but not least, here are the supplies I used:
*Bird with Leaves and Flower Bigz die, Matchbox Bigz LX die
*Texturz plates
*Scallop Border punch and Scallop Oval punch
*Parisian Breeze DSP, Baja Breeze and Shimmery White CS
*So Saffron ribbon, Button Latte

I'll try and create a template for the box soon and post that in the next week or so. In the meantime, hope you have a great day!

Mojo Saffron Butterfly

Morning! Here's my quick post for the Mojo Monday 87 challenge. Here's the card sketch for this week:
and here's my interpretation of it:I've been intrigued with my new found love for the acetate sheet! I especially like using them for the butterflies (disclaimer: that's all I've used them for so far though). I also have wanted to do a card in the saffron and gray combo, inspired by a color combo I saw at J. Crew. Hope you like it and have a great day!

Name Frame for my niece

Hello there! Wondering who Lily is? She is my niece and God daughter and I really wanted to make this Name frame for her birthday (this past May 11th), but time just seemed to escape me! I had the mental picture in my head and was finally able to create it this past weekend. I got the frames at Ikea, and the rest of the supplies are all Stampin'Up! Here's a close up of the "L":It turns out, these are super easy to do and a lot of fun to make, so I may be doing this for an upcoming class. Will keep you posted. Have a great day! Bye for now.

It's Monday and it's time for the Freebie Friday 19 winner?

Hello there and a cheery Top o' the week to you all! I had a lot of fun reading everyone's comments about scrap control, and I was very happy to see that I'm not alone. I am glad that there are a handful of you who have gotten a system down to manage your scraps and have shared your scrap organization wisdom with us. I liked the idea of grouping the scraps with the original cardstock colors, though I do run into the problem of sometimes using a fresh sheet rather than taking a sec to see if I have an appropriate sized scrap. Sometimes, I'm just too impatient to wade through my scraps! I also liked the idea of putting the punched scraps in a bowl and then packaging it up to give away. I think I may actually implement that with my current scrap punches.

Anyways, are you all ready to find out who the winner is? Big drumroll please...and the winner is:Ann! Here's what she had to share regarding her scrap management:Glad you like the purse card, Ann! It's yours :)

Thanks so much for playing another round of Freebie Friday. This week, I've got a few projects lined up to share with you, so be sure to come back and check them out :)

Have a great week, everyone!

Raspberry Suite Challenge 6 Card

I seem to have caught the challenge bug this morning. Here I am again, posting my card for Dawn McVey's Raspberry Challenge 6! The colors were so yummy that I couldn't resist. I even busted out my Cool Carribean cardstock from retirement for this one! I love love love the cool carribean color too...wish Stampin'Up! still had it so I could stock up on the cardstock. I only have a coveted 6 sheets left! Without further adieu, here's the card I made.

I am really happy with how this card turned out. It's such a cheery little color combo and I do love me the butterfly! I used the polka dot acetate window sheet to layer over the cool carribean butterfly. Here's a closer view.The cameo coral polka dots are punched out 1/2" circles. You like? Hope so!

Here's the recipe:
*Cool Carribean, Cameo Coral, and Shimmery White Cardstock
*Window Sheets
*Beautiful Butterflies and Scallop Circle Big Shot dies
*Circle cutter
*Cheep Talk stamp set
*Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon, Chocolate Chip classic stamp pad
*1/2" circle punch, slot punch

Have a good one and I'll catch you guys later!

Baja Beach Double Time Challenge!

Good Morning and Happy Sunday! I wish the sun was out here in my neck of the woods, but sadly, the fog has socked us in. Maybe that's why the card I came up with today has to do with a sunny beach scene. It could be wishful thinking on my part, but we definitely have a May Gray day in Southern Californina. Anyway - back to the card, I was inspired to create this from Taylored Expression's Cupcake Challenge sketch #68 and Kristina Werner's Color Challenge #52.
Here's a picture of my full card. I love these colors - besides the fact that they are also very UCLA looking, too :)

Here's the recipe - all supplies Stampin'Up!:
*Embrace Life stamp set
*Baja Breeze, So Saffron, More Mustard, Sahara Sand, Whisper White and Shimmery White card stock
*Delicate Dots and Walk in the Park DSP
*Baja Breeze Classic Ink pad
*Eyelet Border, Scallop Border, Wide Oval, Large Oval, Scalloped Oval punches
*Texturz Embossing plates, Matchbox Bigz XL die, and Circle Cutter
*Chunky Glitter, So Saffron Twill ribbon

I wanted to try making an umbrella with punches since I've seen so many cute umbrellas on the blogs I visit. I used the Wide Oval punch and the eyelet border to create mine.

Thanks for coming by to visit. Enjoy the rest of your day!

Happy Freebie Friday 18!

Hello all! TGIF! I've been at it again with my purse obsession and I decided to make it this week's Freebie Friday giveaway. You like it? I hope so! It's a slightly different version of the gift card holder. Here are a few more pictures:

The inside view - I added a pocket using the Scallop Envelope big shot die and a little bit of the Sweet Always DSP to cover the base of the pocket.By the way - Gift card is NOT INCLUDED ;)The full purse - it has a shorter handle than the other Gift Card purse. The finished purse size is 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" - still fits in an envelope!

Ready to play for this week's giveaway? To play for this week's Freebie Friday, please leave me a comment on this post with your email address or blog url (basically, enough information so I can contact you) by Midnight Saturday, May 16th. The winner will be announced on Monday's blog post, so you can check back then. Good luck! You can leave me a comment on anything or answer the following question: What do you do with your craft scraps? I've been putting them in a "scraps" box, although now, that box seems to be overflowing. I've started using the scraps of DSP and punching out various shapes and organizing them in plastic ziploc bags, which has helped (....you may see these punch assortments in future giveaways!) although I still need to figure out a good way to organize my cardstock scraps. I'd love to hear what you all do!

Hope you have a great day and thanks for visiting :) Ciao for now.