Gettin' digi with it!

I've fallen for digi stamps! More specifically, I've fallen for Pink Cat Studio's Digi Stamps. Melissa (owner) has the BEST tutorial on how to use the digital stamps. I've been leery as I wasn't too sure how difficult it would be. Let me tell you: easy peasy lemon squeezy! Follow her tutorial here. I just use my desktop printer on Wausau 90 lb cardstock. It glides through my printer and I let the ink set an hour or so. Copics work great and even yellow and lighter colors do not bleed. Look for more Pink Cat Studio fun from me in the next day or two.

Details:

Stamps: digi -PCS

Sentiments: Papertrey, misc

Paper: Doodlebug, SU

Tools: Border punch, tag punch

Extras: Grommet, ribbon, buttons (misc), karen foster floss

Blessings,

Colleen

WSC95 TRENDY TREES

I had a chance to play with Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge (WSC95) this weekend. I loved this sketch! My niece Jen, (hi Jen!) gave me the color inspiration. She is helping with another niece's marriage in October and her wedding colors are Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, and Not Quite Navy.



It sounded so unusual, but when I pulled my sample cards out and laid the colors together, they were gorgeous!
Thanks to you wonderful girls who leave me such sweet comments!
Blessings,
Colleen

Details:
Stamps: SU Trendy Trees
Paper: SU Old Olive, Chocolate Chip dp, Not Quite Navy, Very Vanilla
Ink: Old Olive, Chocolate Chip
Tools: Cuttlebug embossing, nestabilities dies
Other: Ribbon brad, ribbon, twine, paper piercing

MojoMary Autumn Splendor

Okay, let me say this first thing: I LOVE THIS CARD!! It is AWEsome {sang in my 5 year old's voice}.

I could not wait to experiment with this set. And I did. And like all good experiments, there was some failure. (You could check my trash if you want.) But, my persistence paid off with this little beauty!

1) Rolled the SU Bright Blesssings wheel in Versamark, then onto very vanilla cs. Covered with clear embossing powder and set with heat gun. (Did this for 2 lines)

2) Sponged a variety of SU inks starting with lightest color. Trimmed, cut into squares.

3) For large leaf, I stamped in rich razzleberry ink on very vanilla cs. Sponged inks, ending with luscious rich razzleberry around the edges. Smooshed it onto the top of the Versamark Dazzle pad, Champagne. See all the beautiful shimmer?

I'm still not totally in love with this year's SU in colors, but I do think that all but Bermuda Bay and Melon Mambo are rich and gorgeous Autumn colors.

This is dedicated to my cyber-friend Mary Fish who (innocently? unknowingly? cunningly?) threw down a challenge to me! It's on now girl!

Seriously, though, Mary is one of the sweetest, dedicated people I know. She is a shooting star and you cannot help but be inspired by her!

Details are below, but for now, have a good day!

Blessings,

Colleen

Details:

Stamps: SU Autumn Splendor, Bright Blessings wheel

Paper: SU very vanilla, rich razzleberry, dusty durango, vellum

Ink: SU rich razzleberry, summer sun, crushed curry, dusty durango, pumpkin pie

Versamark and Versamark Dazzle.

Other: SU rich razzleberry and dusty durango ribbon, button, floss

ppa5 Halloween

PPA Challenge 5 is Halloween. I was thinking I didn't have much in the way of Halloween in my stash, but remembered these cute pumpkins in the hostess set: The More The Merrier. I so tried to get orange in this color combo! I couldn't do it! I liked the Rich Razzleberry, black, and white so much, I just went with it. The pumpkins are stamped in black Staz-on on clear card sheets (like acetate). I then cut out a window on the front of my card and positioned the clear sheet inside my window. I also used a piece of RR cardstock to along the back side of my card. Gives a nice frame look.
Kansas weather was PICTURE PERFECT today! Deep blue skies and 72 degrees. Hope your day was good wherever you are.
Details:
Stamps: SU The More the Merrier
Ink: Black Stazon
Paper: SU ww, black, Rich Razzleberry
Tools: Nestabilities, SU word window, scalloped edge punches
Other: SU ribbon, cuttlebug embossing, misc black rhinestone
Blessings,
Colleen

wsc94 sketch

Beate had a great sketch this weekend! You can check it out on her blog Fresh & Fun.

My 5 year daughter loves anything fairy or mermaid. We spent some time coloring these sweet images from Pink Cat Studio. This one will find it's way into her lunch some day next week!

Stamps: Pink Cat Studio

Ink: Momento

Paper: BG Lemonade Paper

Other: Rhinestones, ribbon

Tools: SU punches

Blessings,

Colleen

PPA4 Card Details

As promised, here are close-ups of the cards (and a couple of tags) that fill up my celebration basket box from my earlier post. I say I'm going to keep these for my stash, but they just may end up a gift for someone. Thanks for stopping by. If you have a minute, please leave me a comment. I appreciate your thoughts and time!
Blessings,
Colleen

ppa4 anything but a card

This week's PPA challenge was anything but a card. But I really needed to make some birthday-celebration cards and gift card holders to have on hand. So I created these fun little holders to keep my stash in.

First, I used this cute little mini magazine holder tutorial from Becky Roberts at Inking Idaho to hold several gift card holders. The gift card holders I just figured out myself with a simple trifold.

Next I made this fun and very easy box-basket to hold a set of 9 cards (why 9? I don't know! Seems like it should be 10 or 12, shouldn't it? I admit there's a little bit of Adrian Monk in me :) I found a quick little tutorial from Claudia at Pretty Pressings for the box. It's a great size to hold gifts or cards. Tune in later for a close up of each of the cards in my card stash. Off to get the children up and moving for school and me to work.

Stamps: none

Paper: SU Simply Scrappin Kit

Other: Ribbon, Scor-Pal, SU punches

Blessings,

Colleen

Gratitude

A very clean and simple card today.

This would make a great layout for a set of cards using all of the sentiments in the SU set Define Your Life.

Stamps: SU Define Your Life, Doodle This

Paper: SU: Real red, kiwi kiss, very vanilla, brown dp

Other: chipboard stamped on real red stamp pad

paper piercing

Hope you have a good weekend!

Blessings,

Colleen

BUTTERFLY ACETATE

Good day to you! Here's a card I made for my swapping ladies group. They wanted to try some acetate. (That doesn't sound very good, does it!). When I was working on my entries for the CHF Summer Design Star challenge (see previous posts), I was playing with acetate, or clear card sheets. Sort of a transparency sheet, but thicker and sturdier. Several companies sell it including SU and CHF. Anyway, I pulled out my nestabilities butterfly dies and cut some butterflies out of the clear acetate. I then took white staz-on and stamped onto the acetate, in this case using the Bella Toille background stamp from SU. I then cut another butterfly (same size) out of Baha Breeze cs. Then I adhered the two together with SU 2 way glue pen just down the middle of the buttefly to hold them together. (Hey, some little seed pearls would look very pretty for the butterfly's body!)

The rest of the card is pretty straightforward.

Stamps: SU Bella Toille bg, SU Upsy Daisy (sentiment)

Paper: All SU cs and dp (retired)

Ink: White StazOn

Tools: Nestabilities butterflies, Martha Stewart small butterfly punch.

The first day of Kindergarten was yesterday...and I didn't even cry! Neither did my dear daughter. She's a natural hugger and very affectionate, but I always know when she is nervous because she gets very still and keeps hugging and kissing on me. So yesterday after I walked her into her room and she found her chair with her name, she happened to be the only student at her table at that point. So I knelt beside her and told her I was going to leave and she went to hug/kiss me and she just kept on all the while telling me she loved me. Yep...she was nervous. And I was melting, I tell ya! I was reassuring her and stayed by her till another student (a little boy who she knew from preschool, and whose older brother/sisters/parents have been friends of ours for years, came and happened to have his seat right next to her). That's all she needed. She was like, "See you later Mama!"

Another blessedly good day!

Blessings,

Colleen

PPA3 -Off to School

Time for this weeks PPA (Pals Paper Arts) Challenge3. The team at PPA's challenge this week was an inspiration photo found here. I know, I know, lot's of room for interpretation and directions to go with this, but I found it to be a struggle.

In the end, here's what I came up with. I was immediately grabbed by the bright blue striped rug. Knew those were the focal colors for me. Then I saw the 2 children at the table in maybe a playroom or preschool. That made me think of my now 5 year old who finished her preschool in May and will be starting Kindergarten in {sniff} 2 days. This led me to thinking about getting her school supplies all ready in her pride and joy: her Tinkerbell backpack! So, in conclusion, bright blue, light blue, backpack!

You can find a really great tutorial for these little backpacks on SCS. I also found inspiration from Nancy Riley at Istamp. They are little, about 4 inches high and about 1 1/2 inches at the bottom. Perfect for a small handful of wrapped chocolates, or even tucked in with a gift card.

Stamps: None

Paper: Retired SU Pacific Point and DP (using up my stuff--woohoo)

Other: Retired SU corduroy buttons, lots of redline tape, ribbon, eyelets.

I actually made two as my older daughter wanted to give one to her BFF, and my youngest daughter can give one to her Kindergarten teacher.

So, in conclusion for me: 5 year old, Kindergarten, tissues.

Blessings,

Colleen

PPA2 Lots of Bots

Time for Week 2 Challenge at PPA (see my sidebar for link). This week's challenge was a sketch challenge. Perfect timing to finish a birthday card for my now 15 year old son. I did not use the scallop border at the bottom, but rather used the binary stamp that came with the SU! set, Lots of Bots. My son is a no frills kind of guy-- no ribbon, no bling, no cutesy sentiment. It's part of what I respect and love about him--so I felt this clean and balanced end result was just right.
Stamps: SU Lots of Bots
Paper: SU kraft, whisper white cs
Ink: Not quite navy
Other: Eyelets, pop-up dots
Hope your Monday was productive!
Blessings,
Colleen

PPA Challenge 1

Mary Fish a FANTASTIC resource for all things SU! has created, with the help of her amazing downline, a new challenge site, PPA. The first challenge was a color challenge using Chocolate Chip, Mambo Melon, Bermuda Bay.

I really did find this challenging! My sister had asked me to make her a simple set of gift cards for a variety of occasions. So I took a very, very clean and simple approach and made her a dozen gift cards using the SU! level2 hostess set, Admit It. I cuttlebugged the card fronts, then simply stamped the ticket stamps on Whisper White CS, trimmed and popped up with a pop dot. A finishing touch was a snippet of the SU! in color ribbons. The cards are a smidge less than 3"x3". I had found this little box of cards on a clearance rack at M's (<$1) and bought it for the box and envelopes alone! The little cards inside were donated to the school for teachers to use. I didn't show it here, but I also stamped a little coordinating image on each envelope.

Probably not exactly what the girls had in mind for their color challenge, but hey, I reserve the right to use artistic interpretation, right? Thanks for stopping by! Here's hoping for a wonderful Tuesday for you!

Blessings,

Colleen