The Spot Creative Challenge #125 It's a sketch!

Hey Y'all! 

It's been a crazy week! I'm back in the classroom and students came yesterday. But enough about that, lol!

Today is a sketch challenge and y'all a sketch is a great way to craft stress free. And right now no stress crafting is just the ticket. Now when I saw this sketch I got really excited. Two things jumped out at me: the large circle and the fact that I wanted to rotate things. Now in a sketch you have to look at shapes as place holders. That circle could be anything- star, heart, rectangle, or one of Stampin' Up! many tag/ banner type shapes. The other thing I try to remember when working with a sketch is that I can change it up. It can be inspiration or it can be exact. This sketch was more inspiration.

Let's talk about what I pulled for inspiration. I loved the circle but I wanted to change the shape. I went with hearts. I changed the rectangle to go behind my shape and I made it one of the Stitched Nested Label dies. One thing I wanted to do was keep the was the fun of the circles so I looked for a paper that had circles. These papers are part of the Playing with Patterns suite. I absolutely love the fun of this paper! 

I used the cute little turtle from Back on Your Feet stamp set. I colored him with blends. It was a super quick way to color him. I little fussy cutting and there he is on those adorable hearts. This card is sure to brighten anyone's down day! 

Don't forget to check out all the great things that are part of this months challenge over at The Spot! I hope that you are inspired to create a little kindness, one card at a time!

Are you in the United States? I would LOVE to be your Stampin'Up! Demonstrator!

If you are in the United States and not currently working with a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, you can order supplies in my online store, here.

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The Spot Creative Challenge #124- it's a color challenge!

Hey Y'all! I'm back this week with a color challenge from the amazing team at The Spot! 

So what do you think of these colors? Are they something you would have pulled together? Not me. Well maybe the Cinnamon Cider with Blackberry Bliss but I know I would not have put Mint Macaron with it. But I'm really pleased with this weeks card. 

So let's talk inspiration for a minute.... Sometimes a card hits me as a finished almost can touch it project. Maybe I woke up with that image in my head. Sometimes a card hits me in certain products that seem to be saying use me together. And other times, well I flounder. I might have a color scheme or some products but nothing really seems to be "playing well together". This card was the latter. 

I knew that I wanted to use the new Celebrate stamp set but I also wanted a feeling  of fall and quilts. To achieve the "feel" of fall and quilts I needed our color scheme to play well with the stitched triangles dies and stamps. And y'all that didn't come easy! LOL. 

Details for today's card

Here is a close up of the card. See those triangles going across the card? Those are the fabulous stitched triangle dies. The images on the triangles are a stamp from the Stitched Triangles bundle. The scream fall to me! Each triangle has been stamped with that stamp before placing it on the card. The pumpkins and greeting are from the Celebrate stamp set in the August- December Mini Catalog.

Now let me show you the whole card! I did a top folding card base of Cinnamon Cider. Then I layered Blackberry Bliss under Whisper White. I stamped the pumpkins and the greeting in Tuxedo Black ink and colored with Blends. I added a few sequins to finish this card off. 

I hope that you are inspired to create a little kindness, one card at a time! Don't forget to see what the rest of the team did with this color challenge by clicking on the image below.

Are you in the United States? I would LOVE to be your Stampin'Up! Demonstrator!

If you are in the United States and not currently working with a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, you can order supplies in my online store, here.

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OSAT Blog Hop August New Beginnings

Hey Y'all! Where oh where did the month go? I mean wasn't it just yesterday we were talking about the brat pack and Pretty In Pink? This month we are taking a look at New Beginnings! Being a pre school teacher, school is on my brain this time of year, so my new beginning is back to school. 

Here are my projects. We will take a closer look down below. Plaid to me is quenticental fall. I mean it's weird to wear plaid in the summer right? lol. Plaid is school uniforms, and pumpkin patch picnic tables. It's cozy and warm and inviting. So it was the perfect place to start for my projects this month. 

Details for today's card

First up, the Welcome Back card. I don't know about you but being out of school since March 12 is starting to weigh on me and my since of purpose. I am a teacher. I always have been. As a child I had a learning disability. We very quickly figured out that if I could teach "it" to someone else then I knew the material. So my dolls would learn algebra or world history. I decided for this project to mix a little something old with a little something new. The apples are from the Harvest Hello stamp set. They were stamped and colored with Blends. Everything else on the card is new.

Picking the perfect plaid was hard man! There are so many beautiful ones in the new 6"x6" Plaid Tidings DSP. I decided to use two for this card. I made sure that the scale of the plaids were different as was the direction of the plaid. I also mixed in some wood grain paper from the In Good Taste DSP. I used the next to smallest frame die from the Celebration Labels dies to create a Pretty Peacock shape for my apples to anchor on. My greeting is embossed with gold embossing powder.

Here is a close up of the front. You can see that one of my plaids is bold and the other one is subtle. This gives texture and depth to the card without looking like plaid overload. The color of the subtle plaid is Sahara Sand. Now for my 3D project... y'all it's a backpack!!!

How stinking cute is this!!! I used Pretty Peacock cardstock mixed with touches of plaid and Sahara Sand. This image is the back. Or is it the front? Anyway let's look at the other side.

I though these would be so cute with some chocolate and maybe a gift card for school supplies. We have a neighbor who is starting college this fall and this little backpack is going to her. I used the purse dies from All Dressed Up dies to make the backpack. The trick is to tuck in the sides rather than have them stick out.

How about we take a look at the projects together again.

I loved this theme and really struggled with what New Beginning to bring you... baby, new house, new job, retirement, school, college. The list goes on and on. I hope today's projects inspired you to create a little kindness, one card at a time!

Are you in the United States? I would LOVE to be your Stampin'Up! Demonstrator!

If you are in the United States and not currently working with a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, you can order supplies in my online store, here.

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The Spot Creative Challenge #122 Coffee Cocktails and Chocolate

Hey y'all! Happy Tuesday... it's that time of the week, The Spot Creative Challenge day! This week we are looking at cocktails, chocolate and coffee!

Y'all there are SO many wonderful stamp sets that fit this weeks challenge. Both the Annual Catalog and the new August to December Mini Catalog have sets that fit. Or what about taking the challenge a different direction and create something that you could "gift" coffee, cocktails or chocolate to someone? Get creative! This is the perfect challenge for trying out that 3D item you have been dying to try. You know, I also see LOTS of cute scrapbook pages centered around this theme. A girls night out, or maybe a trip to the coffee shop, or how about documenting a cooking class. 

Details for today's card

Today I am using the Whisky Business stamp set. I love this set. It's one of those that sits in a catalog and gets over looked, unless your husband (or any other family member) is a whisky/ bourbon lover. The summer of 2019 our family vacation centered around Jackson and his being part of Skills USA in Kentucky. The rest of us visited the Kentucky bourbon train while Jackson competed. Don't feel sorry for him, he's not old enough to drink yet so he didn't miss much. Each day we visited a new distillery. I am not a bourbon drinker, if it's not in a glass with an umbrella then it's probably not something I will drink. Now that we are clear on that, imagine someone tasting every bourbon on the trail and raking the burn in degrees of hell. Yep that was me! 

When I saw this set in the catalog during pre order, I laughed so hard it caught the attention of my husband. In those minutes he told me "he would never speak to me again if I didn't get that stamp set". Y'all HE never pays attention to anything I show him in the catalog. SO you better believe it was on the first order when it was available. 

Now that I've shared the why behind me getting this set, let's talk about the card. I used 3 colors in this card, Cajun Craze, Sahara Sand, and Cinnamon Cider. This card is very masculine and warm feeling, kind of like the burn of bourbon. I used some of the new Plaid Tidings DSP as well as the new Celebration labels on this card. On the Cajun Craze layer, I stamped the wood looking stamp from Comfort and Hope stamp set. The Cinnamon Cider layer is stamped with the glass from the Whiskey Business set. I stamped both layers in Versamark ink. 

I hope that this card has inspired you to create a little kindness, one card at a time! Make sure you check out what the rest of the team did by clicking on the picture below.

Are you in the United States? I would LOVE to be your Stampin'Up! Demonstrator!

If you are in the United States and not currently working with a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, you can order supplies in my online store, here.

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Positive Inkers International Blog Hop- New August to December Mini Catalog!

Hey y'all!

I am so excited about today! Today I am hopping with a brand new blog hop, The Positive Inkers. We are a small team of international paper crafters. This month we are looking at the bran new August to December Mini catalog. 

I decided to use a suite is that is quickly becoming one of my favorites, Snowflake Splendor. A while back we had a snowflake set the I decided did not need to be in my collection, and I have kicked myself over and over for not getting that set. When I saw this suite, I knew I had to have it. Today I am going to share 2 cards using the suite.

Details for today's card

This first card is full of fussy cut snowflakes. There are 2 layers of DSP separated by Pretty Peacock cardstock. I used the Stitched Nested Labels to create a band across the front of the card. The greeting stamp comes from one of my FAVORITE encouragement stamp sets, High Tide. I love how this works with the ides of snowflakes... shine or sparkle.

 

I started with Coastal Cabana and Pool Party as my color scheme but quickly decided I needed something to ground those light colors and added the Pretty Peacock.  For the snowflakes that I fussy cut, I used two different stamps to create a single image. The finish on this card are the Snowflake Adhesive-backed Embellishments. 

I loved working with this set so much I created a second card for us! Let's take a look:

As I was working, I got to thinking about budgets. I am fortunate as a demonstrator to be able to purchase items at a discount. That really stretches my budget... but what if you aren't a demonstrator? Well I would tell you 2 things, 1.) let's talk to get you set up to get the discount, and 2) I have a secrete to share- you don't have to buy it all to make beautiful cards. This card is just as stunning as the one above. Rather than buying the DSP, I created it! I had complete control over how this paper turned out. You can see the difference in the colors because the DSP uses mostly Pool Party and I used mostly Pretty Peacock. This is really why we stamp to begin with. Yes the paper is beautiful but y'all the magic is in the stamped image! 

Again I added some of the Snowflake Adhesive backed embellishments, but I also mixed in the embossing folder and some vellum. When I shared this card with my family, the over whelming winner of "I love it" was the second card. The one that I had created using the stamps. 

I hope that you are inspired by my cards and hop on over to Canada and visit Sandy's Blog! 

Continue the hop:

Sandy McCullough - Canada  

Maheswari Rajaguru - Australia

Elly Rijnvis - Netherlands

Kate Bolt - UK

Karen Bird Day - USA <YOU ARE HERE>

Are you in the United States? I would LOVE to be your Stampin'Up! Demonstrator!

If you are in the United States and not currently working with a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, you can order supplies in my online store, here.

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