Cuttlebug Be Inspired Challenge 40: Beach Peace

Good morning girls!! So, so happy to see you today! It means so much that you take a minute or two to stop by my blog and see what I've created!

I'm very excited to share not just one but TWO cards with you for today's Cuttlebug Be Inspired Challenge. We had an awesome sketch to work with this week designed by the blog owner Maggie. Today we are highlighting the NEW Herringbone folder that Provo Craft has coming out at the end of the month. It's been such fun to have the new folders to showcase!! I know several of you were able to pick up the set recently on HSN and they are on the way to you --- I can't wait for you to get them so you can use them and play along in our Countdown to CHA celebration!!

I'm also excited because 2RedBananas is sponsoring a great prize this week for those participating in the sketch challenge. It is the Precious Bundle set designed by Jami Bova and released last month. Be sure to link up your creation on the Cuttlebug Challenge blog for your chance to win! Then be sure to head over to 2RedBananas to shop - TODAY is release day and all the July stamps are available!!

I used the July Journaling Spot on my card this week! Jeanette has such a neat concept for these journaling spot sets. And even though I don't scrapbook much, they make really great cards too! Especially this set as it has 2 quotes, 3 seashells, a grass stamp and the journaling spot.

The seashells in the set made me think of the beach. I can't imagine anything more peaceful than a quiet beach somewhere, with a vast expanse of blue and a cabana all to myself. Only the sound of the pounding surf.

Ah. Peace.

The cream panel was torn and inked with Creamy Caramel. The Baja Breeze (water) layer was torn, rolled and inked with Craft White and then the sky (which might be a scrap of Soft Sky?)

The Baja Breeze base panel was embossed with the Herringbone folder and boy do I LOVE the effect that it had on the paper. It's incredibly soft and supple. Twill ribbon and a few pearls keeps it neat and simple. I really wanted all the focus on the quote and the beach scene so kept the embellishments to the bare minimum.

I even decorated the inside with the grass stamp. Creamy Caramel on Kraft. A new favorite.

Be sure to visit the rest of The Banana Bunch - they played along in the sketch challenge this week too and their creations are beautiful too! Swing by their blogs and let them know how much you enjoyed their creations!

I have another card using this sketch as well. It's a great sketch that really puts the focus on the image or sentiment that you want to use. I love those kind of cards. I spied this Caliope image (Paper Makeup Stamps) buried under some stamps and could not resist her calling out to me. I paperpieced her outfit and heart and handwrote my sentiment. My husband loves blue and so it was easy to use the same colors for this card as for my Beach Peace card. I hope he likes it!

We'd love to have you create a card using your Cuttlebug and the sketch too! Be sure to link up your card at the Cuttlebug Challenge blog for a chance to win the Precious Bundles stamp set from 2RedBananas.

Have a beautiful morning!

Butterfly Hanging Basket

The challenge last week at Paper Makeup Stamps was to create a basket. I created a little puffy basket that could easily be hung on a friend's doorknob and filled with a small little treat.

I thought I might offer a photo montage of how I put this basket together. Here's what you'll need:

Cuttlebug

Die Cut

Cardstock

Stamp - Paper Makeup Stamps - I used the large one: What lies behind us

Ink

Distressing Tools - sponge dauber, edge distresser

Punches

Pearls

Piercer, Template, Mat

Twine

Red Sticky Tape

Embossing folder

Crimper

Scissors

I used my Labels One Nestability to cut out 2 pieces of cardstock. Any shape would work this. Spike mentioned yesterday on the Cuttlebug Challenge blog to have a set of B plates for cutting and a set for embossing. I think that is a great tip and will be implementing that soon here in my space. I also embossed each die cut using my Swiss Dots embossing folder.

I stamped the quote in Baja Breeze and then distressed the edges with ink and my distresser tool.

Apply adhesive to your die cut on the lower half only. I used regular adhesive here but then had to go back and re-do it with Red Sticky Tape. So start with that should you make one.

I just used my piercer tool to add holes for my twine. You can eyeball but I used my piercer guide to help make sure they were fairly even as I didn't want it to hang crooked.

Add quote to front, and decorate as desired. I had quite a bit of dictionary scraps from my paper flowers. So I punched out a handful of butterflies and also created some decorative strips with my border punches. For the filler, I just took some Kraft cardstock scrap, crimped it and then cut it into strips.

Crumple them up and add to your basket. I was going to add a Ghiradelli chocolate square. But when I cleaned out my desk drawer a few weekends ago, I guess I threw them all away. {Breathe} I know, I throw chocolate away too. I'm sorry! Please don't hate me!! LOL!!!! Since there was no chocolate, I put a stamp inside. What a sweet treat for a stamper!!

I hope you enjoyed this post! If you make one, I'd love to know so I can take a peek!

Have a beautiful day!!

PMS: Friday Feature

Good morning girls!! Some of my favorite stamps and quotes are from Paper Makeup Stamps. And today I get to be the Friday Feature over on the PMS blog! Thanks again Katie for asking me to share some creations with your customers!! Click the button below to check out the PMS blog!

Flutter By Wednesday: Butterfly Memo Board

Good Wednesday morning girls!!! I hope you are having a wonderful week! It's been great around here! A little chilly still but wonderful! We came down the hallway the other day and saw 2 doves taking shelter from the wind in the window above our front door. That was pretty cool. We were headed out the door so I felt bad that we scared them away. I hope they found another quiet place to rest. Then this morning (which was really Tues. morning as I'm pre-posting this) we had ducks - yes ducks - on our front lawn. Hubby said one was hobbling around on a stump; he fed them lots of bread so hopefully they had full bellies before they flew off. This is my second post for the day - please be sure to scroll down and see my Cuttlebug Challenge card - I love how it turned it out!!

Since it's Wednesday I have another Flutter By Wednesday project to share with you. Several months ago, Maggie, the owner of the Cuttlebug Challenge blog asked several of us to create an altered project for the Ready, Set, Create ezine. (Click on the cover to purchase this issue. It's full of lots of other great and easy projects!) I was thrilled to be asked and set about making a simple project. (This is actually not the first project I started - that project had pictures the wrong size and has been shelved since then). But I have a few of these memo boards and decided to alter one of them and make it into something pretty AND functional.

Here's what I started with:

To begin, I removed the corner brackets and then the side pieces. They were hot glued together so I just gently used an exacto blade as needed. I also removed the piece separating the memo section from the cork section. You could leave the white board on there but I carefully removed it and used it as a template to create my topper.

Some pretty dictionary butterflies. It's hard to see in this photo, but they have been embossed using my cuttlebug folders and inked. Gems on their body and gems highlighting some of the paper design to add a bit of sparkle.

The journaling tag was stamped with a quote from Paper Makeup Stamps. This is the small size; I really like this quote and think I'll have to get the big size too! It is tucked under some layered flowers. The center is a really pretty aurora borealis button I picked up at WalMart. After gluing the section back down, I added some lace to act as a barrier from the corkboard section.

We would love to see your butterfly creations as well. Please use the keyword FBW when uploading at SCS or PCP. Also be sure to visit the rest of the Flutter By team. They create the most beautiful cards/projects - you won't want to miss them! I am so excited to welcome Nancy to the Flutter By team. She is one of the sweetest stampers and is so very talented too! You will really enjoy getting to see her work if you are not already familiar with her. Be sure to leave her a note of welcome. Another big thing is that the challenge is all about Fluttering - and fairies flutter just like butterflies. So we are adding fairies to the challenge too!

Ann
Ashley
Cathy
Danni
Heather
Jodi
Kristie
Michelle

Nancy

Be sure to keep scrolling and see my card for this week's Cuttlebug Be Inspired Challenge.

Be Inspired #23: Punches

Good morning girls! It's Wednesday and so I have several things to share with you today. Be sure to make sure and see the Flutter By card and my Pink Papery Studios project too!

This week for the Be Inspired challenge at the Cuttlebug Challenge, we were asked to use punches in a unique way. Well.

I actually started my journey as a punch artist. I visited the local stamp store for the first time in search of punches. I finally agreed to attend a stamp club meeting and told everyone I was not a stamper. My friend still likes to kid me about that today. I used to have tons of punches but I hadn't used them in years and so this past summer I cleaned out almost all of them and donated them. Well, I sold a few and donated the rest. So I felt really unprepared for this challenge. After lots of thinking, I decided to create my own punched border!



I started by using my scalloped border punch from Stampin Up! After marking the center of every other scallop I used one of my hand held punches to add the stars. It's pretty simple but I'm really starting to like it!!


Paper Makeup Stamps had their March release party this past weekend. The day was full of lots of really great cards, some fabulous chatter and three very cool challenges! One of the challenges Christi issued was a color challenge: Green, Orange and White. So that is where my color combo for this card came from. The stars were stamped in Kiwi Kiss and then the quote was stamped over in Memento Tuxedo Black. The base layer was stamped with the stars and flourish too in Tangerine Tango to add some oomph and interest! Just one little button to finish it off. Not an over the top card but I really wanted to keep the focus on the quote! Be sure to visit the store blog and try out the challenges too - there are prizes up for grabs this week!

Head over to the Cuttlebug Challenge blog and see what the rest of the team created!! You will not be disappointed -- they are all sooooo talented!!

Have a beautiful day girls!!

Birthday Wishes from Chelly

Okay girls, one more card for today, but since it's St. Patrick's Day, it is a perfect fit!! I've been using the fairies from Paper Makeup Stamps quite a bit and this was the last card I created for my DT application. I held off on posting it here because I wanted to give it to my sister-in-law for her birthday (hi girl!) and since I know she reads my blog I wanted it to be a surprise!

I had this idea for a rainbow simmering in my head for several days and even though it took a LONG time to do, I think it is really worth the effort!

To create the rainbow, I took a square of cardstock and covered it with Sticky Strip (Red Liner Tape). With the red cover still on, I ran the cardstock through my Cuttlebug with all the circles at one time. Then I carefully removed each circle one at a time and covered it with glitter. I went in order from red to purple. But I recommend starting with the blue first as it was the darkest and there are some sprinkles of it in the light blue.

The base was run through my Cuttlebug using the D'vine Swirls folder and then painted with Peaceful Shimmer It. For the grass, I used my scalloped edge punch, off-setting it to get a jagged look and embossed it with Swiss Dots - after stamping my sentiment. Chelly was colored with my Prismacolors and baby oil and then carefully trimmed out! With the glitter, the Shimmer It and the Stickles on her wings, this card met the first embellishment challenge from PMS. Even though the challenge is over, you should go see this week's. There are actually 3 and there are PRIZES attached!!

I really wanted this card to have dimension and so I used a LOT of pop dots.

Lastly, I wanted to share my little man's Chelly with you. He loves to color and asked if he could color this girl the other day. Once he picked out his colors he went to town. I even got to help! Once he finished he asked to put away the pencils and then said "take a picture". He's seen me take enough pictures of my cards, he wanted to show off his too!

So Happy St. Patrick's Day from us to you! You are such a blessing to me each and every day with your visit, your sweet comments and encouragement and mostly your friendship! I hope I return the favor!!

Inky Impressions 1st Design Team Call

How is your Monday going girls? Ours has been really great so far! Hubby was out of town over the weekend and I had to work Saturday night so my little man spent the night at my Mom's house. It was nice to just have QUIET here on Sunday. But as much as I enjoyed it, picking up the little guy was the BRIGHT spot in my day, know what I mean?

Inky Impressions is a new stamp company and she has a design team call going on. I saw the link on Tenia's blog and had to go see what kind of images she has. And OH are they ever adorable! Big, BIG eyes and sweet faces! After reading the blog and seeing the sweet Lili and Angelica images, I decided that I definitely wanted to apply as well! Here are the 2 cards I'm posting for Round 1!

Remember this one? It's still my most favorite card ever!! There are others that are right there, nipping at her heels, but she's still number one! She was colored with my Prismacolor pencils and a blender pencil.

And a close-up of the shading and the fabric swatches with the designer's notes on fabric choices.

And for the second example I am also re-posting this one as I love her too! My favorite little bit is still the fun flock on the dandelion! I watercolored Kirsten on this card.

Here's a close-up shot so you can really see the shimmer of her wings and the fluff of the dandelion.

Well, that is it for today. Head over to Inky Impressions - you can find the details on the Design Team call HERE and see the examples of Lili and Angelica HERE (scroll all the way to the bottom).

I want to go get some stamping done during naptime today so I better scurry! Thanks so much for always coming by to visit! I just noticed today that my hits were over 11,000! I treasure each of you and hope that you are blessed each day by your visit!

Have a beautiful day and I'll see you back here tomorrow for Madelynn's Twinkling Tuesday!

PMS Blog Hop & Party

Good morning girls!! I hope you had a wonderful sleep! I can't help it, I'm pre-writing this and curling up in bed is the next thing on my list! I hope I can sleep though - I'm so excited about the PMS blog hop today. I can't wait to see all the wonderful creations. Plus all the chatter I know will be going on, the challenges and the announcement of the design team.

If you've made it here from Sara's blog then you are right on track, enjoying all the eye candy in the pre-party hop! If not, head over to the PMS blog - you won't want to miss any of the stops I know!!

I used Kirsten for my card today. I *think* she might be my favorite fairy. At least until I stamp another one. Or the next release. To be honest, they will all switch rank on a regular basis I believe!!

I stamped her in Memento Tuxedo Black and then watercolored her using my SU stamp pads and Fantastix. I really like those little sticks but I'm not sure I'm completely sold on them yet!

I used my new Spica glitter pen to add sparkles to her fairy breath (I saw Tina do that the other day and thought it was a great idea) and her cheeks. Her wings and her fairy curl have Stickles on them. My favorite little touch though is the dandelion which has been coated in Fun Flock!

If you are just now hearing about Paper Makeup Stamps, they are wonderfully, deeply etched red rubber and closely trimmed. LOVE THAT!! Plus Katie offers them in bare rubber or already mounted on EZ Mount. I ordered Chelly on EZ Mount and the other fairies in bare rubber. Even using Kirsten in bare rubber she stamped beautifully and cleanly. LOVE THAT TOO!

The layout for my card is from this week's VivaLaVerve sketch. This is actually the second card base I made for my Kirsten image. I had such grief with this layout which is crazy because it's pretty simple!

Thanks for hopping on over today! I hope my card brought a smile to your face! It's time to send you on over to Shaela's blog. I lifted the following information from the PMS blog for your reference here on the party details:

{snip} Here's a breakdown of our party plans!

Just before the party starts at 3 EST (that's 2 CST, 1 mountain time, and 12 for west coasters!) I'll announce the winner of the blog banner giveaway.

3:00 - Then to kick off the party there will be some sneaks and some digis! Woot!

3:30 - Christi will issue our first challenge. There is NO time limit on these, but they will be spaced out for those that want to play along as the party goes on.

4:00 - Playin' some games, givin' away some goods...

4:30 - Christi will issue challenge number 2!

5:00 - The Design Team will be announced!!!

5:30 - Christi will issue challenge number 3! From that point on we will just play and chat and share our creations. I'm so so so excited! I hope to see everyone there!!! {snip}

Come join in all the fun!! The chit chat will be taking place in the PMS forum at PCP.

ETA: Here's the complete list of blogs

Lisa Kind

Jennifer Greco

Tangii Crain
Danyel Owens
Lisa McKinney

Dawn Knight

Melissa Craig

Ashley Newell

Ceal Pritchett
Tina Hale

Jamie Morris
Shannon Bracken

Cheryl Penner

Tenia Nelson
Nancy Bush

Joni Wilson
Kimberlee Doktor
Sara Henton

Cassie Larson

Shaela Odd
Heather Lee-Reppen

Kim Stewart

Anita Hovey

Brandi Burns

Dawn Barrett

Tina Blasdell

Christi Thorsen
Katie Cotton

Silver Flowers

Good afternoon girls!! Today we had a dusting of snow outside. I was hoping for a little more snow - crazy as there were tons of accidents this morning with people out driving. It's all melted away now and the air is crisp and cold!!

Are you ready for the weekend? Sunday is going to be a great day!! There's the Club Anya blog hop in the morning (7 am to Noon) and then at 11 am (est) the PMS Party begins!! WooHoo! I can hardly wait!!! Both will be tons of fun I can tell you!! Stamping and blog hopping with my most favorite stampers in the world? I can hardly stand the wait!! Will you be there?

Today I wanted to share the ATC that I made for this month at my local stamp club. Our theme was to use black, white and silver as that is one of the gals favorite color combos. I just love this quote. It's from Paper Makeup Stamps and is the small one. I really love that Katie offers them in 2 sizes - how smart is she?!?!!??! I overstamped the quote in Silver ink with the Happy Harmony set from SU. I love that set and can't imagine ever getting rid of it. I used the Textile embossing folder for the base and the flowers were in the wedding section of Hobby Lobby. A whole bunch for only 77 cents - what a bargain!! As I was working on this it of course took a turn and I ended up with what you see here. It is definitely inspired by the Banana Split Sketch this week over at 2 Red Bananas. Another new awesome stamp store! So even though it doesn't use 2RB stamps, I'm going to enter it there too. And since I just got my order from there I might just have to make a second entry too!

I also wanted to share with you the Ready Set Create Altered Sampler. I am so happy to say that I have a project in this issue. It's an ezine so you download it and can browse through it right away! Several other gals from the Cuttlebug Challenge team have projects in there as well - and OH MY WOW!!! It's full of really wonderful ideas and I'm not just saying that because I'm in there!! *grin* It's only 4 bucks for 65 pages with very few ads - so you are getting tons of ideas!! Gotta love that!

Be Inspired #21: Watercolor

It's Wednesday and you know what means - lots of posting here today!! Be sure to come back later and see my Flutter By and PPS creations. This week the Cuttlebug Challenge team was given the word "watercolor" as our assignment. I thought and thought. And then I thought some more. I finally knew what I wanted to do, sat down at my desk, and veered off course. This has been happening A LOT lately at my desk. I think sometimes art just comes out of you and there is no sense fighting it.
Isn't this a wonderful quote? Soooo true too! **It's from PMS (Paper Makeup Stamps - she has a sale on 2 sets that ends today! I picked up the Star Struck one and can't wait for it to arrive!)

I started off giving my watercolor paper a light wash in blue. It was very subtle. Then I ran it through the script embossing folder. Oh.My.Wow. (that's my new saying - hi Jacquie)

Watercolor paper embosses like a D.R.E.A.M. Then I highlighted the embossing by running my ink pad over it lightly. I uses a the same shade of ink to stamp my quote onto my patterned paper. It's Anna Griffin from my stash - I don't think it's possible to have enough of it - and tore the top edge. I also cut some flowers and leaves from the paper to use as an accent. The base was stamped in the same blue as well with a rose stamp. My butterfly was die cut and then embossed with the Textile embossing folder. I added stickles to the design and some in the flowers I cut out as well.

I got totally impatient waiting for them to dry so pulled out my heat gun to speed up the process. And in so doing, aged the edges of my paper. LOVE THAT!! Totally unexpected and I LOVE how it turned out!

Here is the view of the card standing up. It's just gorgeous in real life!

We'd love to see what you can do with your Cuttlebug and watercolor. Be sure to visit the Cuttlebug Challenge and leave the link to your project in Mr. Linky. I can't wait to see what you create! Be sure to visit the rest of the team too and see what they've come up with!

Chelly Twinkles Too

Hi girls! It's Tuesday and you know that means it's time for Madelynn's Twinkling Tuesdays. Madelynn is 8 years old and loves to sketch while her mom Jessica stamps! Back in December she drew a card sketch and now she has her very own design team! Be sure to visit The Twinkle Blog to see our featured stamper this week - it's Jennifer who is one of my favorite people in the world! I mean, what's not to love about a gal with glitter in her hair? Be sure to stop by and leave her some love, okay?! And be sure to read all the way at the bottom for some VERY COOL news regarding our special guest at The Cuttlebug Challenge this week!

This week Madelynn sent us an Inspiration Challenge! Her mom loves coffee and this is a favorite mug.

I was completely inspired by the colors in the mug: cream, pink and green and that big, wonderful bow!

I also wanted to participate in the sketch challenge Katie issued over at the Paper Makeup Stamps blog. It was inspired by the very first card her mom made this week! I did flip it slightly as I thought my flower at the top was competing too much with the shamrock. It feels much more balanced this way.

I stamped Chelly on watercolor paper in Memento Tuxedo Black. I colored her using my inkpads and a waterbrush. Don't you just love her puffy skirt and the bloomers underneath? The grass and posies were freehanded.

In the closeup you can see the stickles I added to her fairy wings and her fairy curl. She also has a little pink bling on her cheek because...well, she's a fairy and she can!! There are lots of new stamps coming out at the end of the week and Katie put them up for Pre-Order with a discount! But it only lasts until tomorrow so go on over and check them out! She even has the new nestabilities on the pre-order!!

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Be sure to visit the rest of the Twinkies to see how they were inspired by Jessica's coffee cup!

Bonnie Sharp
Christi Thorsen
Danni Bindel
Debbie Lee
Heather Schlatter
Jacquie Peifer
Jami Bova
Janna Hull
Jennifer Greco
Jessica Diedrich
Kim Ross
Kimmie Doktor
Rebecca Ednie
Sandra McLean
Taylor Usry

The Cuttlebug Challenge is so happy to announce our guest this week is THE VALERIE SALMON. She's known for her sketches and design work for Fiskars. She created a wonderful sketch for us this week and we can't wait to see how you use it! Valerie will be picking her favorite and the winner will receive a free subscription to her sketch blog/class: Got Sketch! Cool, huh? So be sure to come back tomorrow to see my take on it!