With Love, From Me to You

Last Wednesday, when I posted my guest design team card for the Creative Inspirations Wednesday Challenge Blog, I thought my time with that team was over. But the lovely Nat, the blog owner, emailed me and asked me if I would like to join as a full time member. Of course, I said yes, and here I am with a weekly Wednesday post for Creative Inspirations. Here is my first card as a full fledged member of the design team. The challenge this week is Pink & Cream. It should have been a realitively easy challenge, right? NOT!! I had something in mind when I sat down to create and it just was not working out. This is the card that I struggled until 2 a.m. on the night before last. I had several lovely vintage Valentine images loaded with pinks. But my paper didn't match well with the pinks, I couldn't find any pink DP I was very excited about, tried doing several different elements with silver embossing, my desk was littered with rejected elements and cut paper. I finally found this MME DP in my stash but it didn't go well with the candy pink CS I had cut, so I ended up going with deep rose accents. When I made that decision, things finally started to fall into place.



Not too many supplies or tools on this one. As I said, the DP is MME, the cream CS is Very Vanilla and the rose is Rose Red. Dies used were Cuttlebug and Spellbinders, plus two CB embossing folders. If you want to know any specifics, leave me a question in the comments and I'll post a reply.

I hope you will stop over to the Creative Inspirations Wednesday Challenge Blog to see what my new team mates have designed for this week's Pink & Cream challenge. There are some really wonderful samples there. And while you're at it, stop by their blogs and get acquainted with my new teammies!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see you again for my next scheduled post on Saturday.


Challenges:
Raise the Bar - Old Paper
Pink Elephant - All About Pink - In Honor of Ella
Frosted Designs - Embossing Challenge
By the Cute & Girly - Love
The Corrosive Challenge - All You Need is Love

Cute Daisy May - Valentine's theme in pink and neutral

Update: This card was featured on Card of the Week.

Everything & Always

Good morning friends! Thanks so much for dropping by to view my weekly Tuesday posting. I'm sorry to be running a bit late getting it up this morning. If the truth be told, I was up until 2:00 a.m. struggling with a challenge card for later this week and then went to bed forgetting to schedule this morning's post. I guess sometimes I get too obsessed with certain projects - LOL!!

So here is my design team card for Creative Card Crew. The challenge this week given to us by DT member Sam is to make a Valentine card. This challenge was lots of fun for me. Sometimes cards just seem to fall together. As usual, this card doesn't look much like the idea I had in mind when I first sat down, but I really love the way it came out. Red is my favorite color and you have to admit, this card is a red indulgence!

I dug way down into my stash and came up with this designer series paper from SU. I've had it for at least three years and tend to hoard it because the reds are so lovely. This cool paper ribbon has been sitting on my craft table since Christmas. I have had it literally 10 years. I don't know if they even make the stuff any more. I found a bundle of it with my Christmas wrapping gear this year and grabbed it for my cards rather than pack it away again. Two stamp sets were used - SU's Always and a Verve set my DD gave me for Christmas called Thankful Accents. A couple of Spellbinder dies and a Martha border punch also contributed to the design of this card.

This week's challenge at Creative Card Crew is sponsored by Crafty Addicts. You can win this sweet stamp to be given away by random drawing. This challenge is now biweekly so you have until February 15th to play in the challenge and participate in this drawing. I hope you will stop by and see what the other wonderful ladies in the Crew have contributed.

Challenges:

Fussy & Fancy - Hearts

Stamp Simply - Bleeding Hearts (red hearts)

Stamp Something - Delightfully Delicious Somethings

Papertake Weekly Challenge - Love Actually

Blessings on your day,


Update: This card was featured on Card of the Week.

Exciting News and a Card to Share

I am so excited to be able to share this news with you today! Earlier this week I received an invitation to be a guest designer for the grand opening of a brand new digital stamp company Sugar Creek Hollow which will be specializing in vintage and primitive images. Humm...does that sound like a fit for my style? I think so and apparently so did the folks at Sugar Creek Hollow!!

Today I am sharing the first card I have made with one of their digis. The Sugar Creek Hollow Design Team has been working hard behind the scene creating cards to share with you for the Grand Opening. We couldn't resist holding back!! We want to share with you just a preview of what is to come.

Isn't this the most beautiful vintage floral image you have ever seen? I fell in love with it immediately and I'm sure it will become a favorite go to image for many occasions. I paired it up with SU's (retired) Afternoon Tea designer paper Wild Wasabi CS and picked up the colors from there. Gingham ribbon just seemed like a must for this card and I was lucky to find some in my stash that matched. Buttons and brads along with some linen thread added the finishing touch. I plan on finishing off the inside and including a sentiment there, but wanted to get this posted along with all this exciting information.

Want to earn this digi for FREE? Become a Sugar Creek Hollow Follower. Be the 150th or 200th follower and you will receive a FREE digi of your choice!!! Deadline is February 7th at 10pm eastern time. The winner will be announced on February 8th Preview Week!

Please visit the rest of our lovely team by clicking on their links listed here:

Design Team Coordinator: Joseline
Kristina
Cheri
Cassandra
Cassie
Joan
Stephanie
Marsha
Dani
Suzi
Loretta
Donna
Sarah
Tracy

Guest Designers
Kelly
and me Linda, the funkie junkie!

Hope you will visit all these wonderful designers to see what they have created and be sure to stop by Sugar Creek Hallow to check out the images that have been early released.

I am also entering this card into the following challenges:

Stamp, Scrap & Doodle - Open challenge - enter any gorgeous creation

Cute Card Thursday - Bloomin' Gorgeous (flowers)

Artful Inkables: Think Ink Challenge #12 - Think Spring

Update: I had a question from a reader about the paper piercing tool used here. It is a Spellbinders Boarderabilities die called Ric Rac Scalloped. This die is a cutting, stenciling and piercing tool.

Update: This card was featured on Card of the Week.

Paris in the Springtime

Here is my final guest design team member card for Creative Inspirations Challenge Blog. This week our challenge is to make a feminine card. What fun - a license to go for it - as frilly and girly as you want! The design team was given a choice of three digital images by Lauretta's Digital Stamps. You may remember that I tipped my hand last week by using one of the images a week early. So last week's Flapper Girl was one of Lauretta's images and now this week my Paris lady is also one of her images. I was a little hesitant about digis, but they printed up very easily and colored very nicely with my Copics. When brainstorming about how to use this image, I kept thinking of vintage Paris. I had fun visiting some of my favorite vintage sites to find just the right feminine, flowery vintage images to use. And I found a post card of the Eiffel Tower too. I had intended to include some lace, but in the end did not want to cover up the vintage images or any more of the pretty K&Co. DP (which you can hardly see because I did cover up most of it). That's the problem with designer paper. I see it, I lust after it, I hunt it down, I buy it, I hoard it, then I use it. And when I use it, I cover it all up - aarrgghh!!! Can you identify???

I felt the card needed a touch of gold so I stamped a pretty vintage toile and a flourish around the edges and gold embossed them. After I finished assemblng the card, I decided it needed some sort of finishing touch. I was tempted to add more flowers, but finally decided on the Prima black rhinestone flourish which I layered right over the vintage images. I stood back, examined my creation and decided I liked it. It wasn't as frilly and lacy as I had hoped, but somehow satisfying nonetheless!

I've also found some challenges to play in with this card:

Flourishes Timeless Tuesday #51 - Make a card inspired by something starting with the letter P - I think Paris and Pink qualify

Color Chef Challenge #36 - Light pink & dark pink

Update: This card was featured on Card of the Week

Vintage or Shabby Flower Tutorial

I don't normally do tutorials because 1) I don't think I do anything that most others don't already know how to do and 2) because they take a lot of time, which (selfishly) takes away from my crafting time. But I had to make another of the shabby flowers such as I used on the Vintage Valentine and because someone had inquired about a tutorial, I decided to photograph the steps I took to make the flower.

Supplies Needed

Heart punch or dies - you need two graduated sizes of hearts
A pretty brad or button and glue
1/16" circle punch or a paper piercing tool
Designer paper

Distressing ink/sponge

I generally use either my two smallest Nestabiliteis scalloped hearts or my Creative Memories heart maker. I like the Nesties because the scallops give a ragged/shabby edge.

I generally use two different patterns of DP or one plain and one patterened paper. Cut 2 large hearts and 2 small hearts out of each paper. I keep my Nesties in place when cutting by using low tack painter's tape.

I sponge distress the edges of both the front and the back side of the hearts. To me, if the edge isn't distressed, it looks raw and unfinished.

If you will be using a brad for the center of the flower, using a pencil, mark your punch spot low in the V of the heart and punch all 8 hearts using a 1/16" circle punch or a paper piercing tool. You want a hole just large enough to fit your brad pegs through.

Once inked and punched, crumple up into small balls (think spit-balls back in elementary school - LOL!)

Now flatten out the crumpled up hearts. BE CAREFUL -gently uncrumple them. If you try to do it too fast they will rip.

Now start assembling your flower. Because I am using a button as my center, I have to glue the hearts together. My favorite card-making glue is Beacon Fabri-Tac. It drys fast enough, but not too fast. It leaves a little wiggle room for readjusting when necessary.

Start by laying two large hearts next to each other so the V's overlap. Put a dot of glue between the V's.

Continue gluing at the V until all 4 large hearts are together forming a circle.

Now start layering and gluing the small hearts.

Once all four small hearts are glued, you can add the button.

I had a little glue ooze out from the button holes which I rubbed off with my finger. Fabri-Tac resembles rubber cement in that while it is wet, you can usually rub it off.

Variation: Using a brad for the center. Start with the smallest hearts and thread the brad pegs through the hole you punched. Arrange in a circle and then add the four larger hearts in the same manner. It's quicker and easier to use a brad as a fastener, but sometimes you just need a button.

Let me know if you have any questions. I am always happy to share any tips or techniues I use.

Update: This tutorial was featured on Card of the Week.

Sending Warm Wishes from Sunny Florida

Here's my Design Team card for this week's Pile it On Challenge. The theme this week is Warm Wishes, which you can interpret any way you please. A couple of weeks ago when I first found out what this week's challenge was I was thinking hot chocolate! It had been in the mid-30's here in Miami. One morning I had to scrape ICE off my windshield before I could drive my SUV. As an aside, I found out that credit cards make great ice scrapers in a pinch - LOL!! But now it's warmed up to normal seasonal temperatures - high 70's to low 80's during the day. So I discarded my idea of doing something with hot chocolate for this challenge and decided to send ya'all some of our warm beachy weather.

The stamp sets used are from Flourishes - Beach Life and Seaside Life - both timeless sets that I get a lot of use out of. The designer paper is from the K&Co. Sea Glass collection with Baja Breeze card stock from SU. Coloring is with Copics, jumbo eyelets and twine from SU.

Here are the challenges I have Piled On for this card:

• CCEE Stampers - Sketch
• Stampin B's Design Team - Make a nautical card
• Flourishes Timelss Tuesday Challenge (FTTC#50) - Scene It
• Scrap and Stamp - Use your stash
• Quixotic Challenge #10 - Ink up an old stamp
• ABC Challenge - M is for masking
• Gingersnap Creations #39 - Color Challenge - Metallic
• Oh la la Creations - Create a Scene

Be sure to hop on over to Pile it On and get yourself warm with our warmest wishes for a wonderful Sunday! And while you are there, check out the blogs of our talented design team. Some of us are new to the design team so this is a great time to get to know us!

UPDATE: This card was featured on Card of the Week.

A Very Vintage Valentine, OCC DT Challenge Card

It's Saturday and that means another challenge at Our Creative Corner. This week, Jocelyn Turner, our January host has come up with a sweet sketch for us to follow. I saw her pretty sketch with the sentiment image as a heart and it started me off in the direction of a Valentine's Day card. I seem to be favoring pink and chocolate brown lately so when I picked the pink DP, I automatically gravitated towards brown. I browsed through my computer files of vintage images I had saved and came up with this pretty little Victorian miss surrounded by pink roses. It was a freebie from Heidi's wonderful blog Sabby Chic Papirskatter.



The pink DP is from last year's SU Bella Birds, the solid pink is Pink Pirouette. I stamped the edge in Close to Cocoa with a pretty flourish stamp from Waltzing Mouse Stamps, then roughed up the edges with my scissors and sponged them pretty good with Close to Cocoa. A row of straight stitching finished it off.



I used a couple of Spellbinder dies plus a Fiskar's edge punch on the inside. The inside sentiment is computer generated.



I used another handmade paper flower with a pretty Memory Makers brad on the inside (it's going to be a lumpy sort of card). The leaves are a Sizzlets die I got from SU.

Please hop over to Our Creative Corner and see what the rest of the design team came up with for Jocelyn's sketch. And if you get time, drop by their blogs and see what else they've been up to lately. It's sure to inspire you!

Also, this card is having a blast playing in the following challenges:

Allsorts Challenge - Hearts & Flowers

Crazy for Challenges - Pretty in Pink

Stamp Simply #123 - Very Vintage

Creative Belli Challenge - Hearts

Papertake Weekly Challenge - Pretty Pink Papertake

Crafty Creations - Valentine's or Love
Nutty Nutshells Challenge #7 - Pink and Brown

Update: This card was featured on Card of the Week.

The Holidays Are Here!

That's right...and we hope you will help us celebrate over at Our Creative Corner by making a holiday card - Christmas or Hanukah - and entering it into our challenge! The design team has some fabulous holiday cards to get you started. Stop on over and check them out and get your holiday mojo revved up! Here's my DT card for this week...another one that I didn't get the inside done yet.

It will happen, of course, but maybe not in time to use this one for this holiday season! This has been a super busy week and unexpected issues kept cropping up to monopolize my crafting time (don't you just HATE that?). And I wish I could look forward to taking some time off, but while the rest of the parish staff works half days and the parish school is out entirely, I will be working even harder to keep the food pantry running throughout the holiday season - probably with a reduced volunteer staff because people will be away or wanting to take time off even their volunteer gigs. So if you don't hear from me and I don't visit your blogs, please don't take it personally. I am hoping to cut my hours back to the 20 hour work week that I am being paid for after the first of the year - I want my life back and I need my sanity back! And my New Year's resolution will be to do it!

Okay, so now that I am done venting, I'll tell you a bit about this card. First of all, I'll tell you that I love it. I think I am becoming a brown person. I didn't really have a plan for it. It just evolved. I knew I wanted to use the Cardinal Christmas set. I was a little lazy and didn't want to pull out my Copics and spend time coloring so I decided that brown tones would work just fine. From there, the cracked glass technique seemed to be the right move. Have you seen the Mojo Monday sketch this week with the three circle elements? I've seen a bunch of cards made using tha sketch and I loved it so I set out to use it. It got me started, but I couldn't work it out with the circle size I used for the cardinal so I went to one circle element with Spellbinders dies behind it. First I stamped a piece of Close to Cocoa with the Weathered stamped inked up with Chocolate Chip ink. Then I used the Spellbinders Fleur De Lis pendant die to cut one out of the Close to Cocoa and one out of Chocolate chip cardstock. I offset them, glued them together and layered the main element over them. The main element is stamped onto Very Vanilla with Chocolate Chip, sponged with Tim Holtz Old Paper Distress Ink and with Chocolate Chip around the very edge and then embossed 3 times with SU's Glassy Glaze EP. I stuck it into the freezer for 20 minutes and then cracked it immediately upon removing it. The ribbon is from Jo-Ann's holiday selection, the buttons from Foofala Bag-o-Buttons and the silver half pearls from Michael's.

My daughter is home for a few days so we are planning to decorate the tree tomorrow and bake Christmas cookies...mmuumm...I can almost smell them now. Looking forward to some quality family time this weekend. Hope you find some too!

Update: This card was featured on Card of the Week.

Gold 'N Angel

This week, our challenge at the Creative Card Crew is to make a card with silver or gold on it. So here is my design team card with a bit of gold. Well maybe a little more than a bit - sometimes I don't seem to know when to stop! But I think it works - I like the gold against the navy blue.

The main image is from SU's retired set Yuletide Montage, stamped with Tim Holtz Frayed Burlap Distress Ink and colored with chalks. I used a little Antique Linen Distress Stickles on her wings. The main image is mounted on a panel die cut with Nestabilities Large Deckled Rectangles, stamped with the Script BG stamp and embossed with Judikins Egyptian Gold EP. The DP is SU's retired LeJardin pack. The gold CS is also from SU and was die cut with Spellbinders Fleur De Lis Borderabilities. The tag was cut with Spellbinders Fancy Tags. The Merry Christmas stamp is from SU's A Cardinal Christmas and the gold half pearls are from Michael's.

Wishing you blessings on your week!

Update: This card was featured on Card of the Week.

A Musical Inspiration - An OCC Challenge

It's a new month and a new hostess over at Our Creative Corner. Jenny Gropp is our December hostess and she has challenged us to create a card or project inspired by The Twelve Days of Christmas. There is also a prize this week - a $25 gift certificate from Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps. The winner will be randomly selected from the players listed in Mr. Linkey and announced at next week's challenge on December 12th. Thnks so much to Carole at the Prickley Pear for donating a gift certificate for this week's challenge prize!

Such a vintage Christmas carol surely must inspire a vintage creation and here is mine. It's a wall hanging rather than a card this week. I have seen a number of wall hangings on blogs recently and have been wanting to create one for my home this season. I thought this was the perfect opportunity!

On a 5x7" thin cardboard backing, I glued/sewed a layer of Very Vanilla sponged with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Antique Linen and then stamped it with the SU Script stamp in Close to Cocoa, then ran a line of gold stitching around the outside. The next layer is a piece of distressed Cosmo Cricket Be Good: Poinsettia designer paper, also sewn with gold stitching. The musical score and the vintage image of the turtle doves are both from The Graphics Fairy, although I did modify the vintage image with my Photoshop Elements program to add the words 'Two Turtle Doves'. I glued a layer of gold net between the music sheet and the vintage image. The two small poinsettias are stamped with a Florishes stamp and embossed in gold, sponged with Close to Cocoa, layered and then I added gold balls for the centers.

Both pieces of chipboard are Tim Holtz Grungeboard, heat embossed with Judikins Egyptian Gold EP. The heart was pressed into my Riding Hood Red ink pad and then embossed with the Egyptian Gold. The 'Compliments of the Season' piece is also a digital image from the Graphics Fairy.


I hope you will take the time to join us in this week's challenge at Our Creative Corner. Check out the other design team members' blogs shown on my sidebar. They are fabulously talented and it's well worth it to spend some time surfing their blogs!

Update: This project was featured on Card of the Week.

Retro Santa

From The Funkie Junkie

This week's challenge at Creative Card Corner is to make a Christmas card. How fortunate, right? We get to make a card for a challenge that we can put to immediate use. Here is what I came up with for my design team card this week. The stamp set is the many-years-retired SU Up on the Rooftop which I borrowed from a friend. Last year, I tried to buy it on eBay and was outbid every time. I think I set $30 as my maximum bid and ever time it went for around $70 so I think it is a set many stampers would love to have in their possession!



I started with a shell of Very Vanilla, sponged with Creamy Caramel to distress it. Next layer up is Always Avecado followed by another layer of Very Vanilla stamped with an old SU text background stamp (sorry, don't remember the name of it). Next up is the delicioiusly retro Melissa Frances designer paper called Rudolph. The main image was stamped with Superior India Ink on #140 lb. watercolor paper and watercolored with my SU reinkers for a nice vintage look.


The flowers were made using the Cuttelbug flowers die. I stamped the text stamp in black on the Melissa Frances paper and cut them using the die. The stars are also a Cuttlebug die coincidently called Stars. Brads are SU and the ribbons are Basic Grey. The buttons are from Jo-Ann's.


Update: This card was featured on Card of the Week.