A Criss-Crossed Love

It's Tuesday and my first official post as part of Madelynn's Twinkle Team! The sketch this week was a doozy. I did pack a small bag of stamping supplies to bring to my in-laws of some very basic and loved items. I think the Tres Chic background is very versatile and can go with just about anything. It's also a great way to add texture when stamping with the same color.

I apologize for the poor picture quality. It has been grey and c-o-l-d here since we arrived and there is no Photoshop here for editing purposes. I did use a free online service - Foto Flexer - and managed to make the photo look better than it originally did. I know that's not saying much since the lighting is still so poor. It's really pretty in real life. The base is chocolate chip stamped in chocolate chip. I used Mellow Moss ribbon for my crisscross section and some green cs that I ran through my cuttlebug and my scallop punch for the middle bit. I think it might be Old Olive? I wish you could see the heart in real life - it's SOOOO PRETTY!! I was originally going to have lots of colors on the heart and used my markers to achieve that. Once I stamped it I wasn't too happy with it so I cleaned my stamp and just inked it up with pink. The second stamping came out so cool as it is pink and brown all variegated together. I'm not sure if it's because my stamp wasn't clean enough or if some brown ink contaminated my pink marker but I love the look. I really think it's the marker and I'll buy a new pink one and keep this "ruined" one for the effect.

The original sketch has the sentiment on the left but I switched mine to the right as the word "love" was perfectly positioned. I wanted it to stand out more so I went over it with my white gel pen and added the other 2 words. By incorporating the scallops, ribbon and a sentiment with 3 words or more I can also count this card as one of the Holiday Challenges over at SCS.

Thanks so much for looking! Be sure to check out the rest of the Twinkling Team to see their take on this week's sketch! The links can all be found in my sidebar!!! I promise to take new pictures when I get home so you can see the pretty heart!! Thanks for stopping by!

Have a beautiful day!!

It's Always with You & a Terrific Treat

I know that diabetes is something my family thinks about a lot but from the comments yesterday, it's affecting so many of you too. From yesterday's post: November is Diabetes Awareness Month. My grandfather was a diabetic for years and my mom was diagnosed several years ago. The Diabetes Association uses the colors grey and red for their awareness colors. The grey represents the drudgery of dealing with diabetes every day and the red represents the multiple blood tests that a diabetic performs each day. To spread awareness of the disease, I'm featuring grey and red projects all week!

I used CPS91 as my sketch for this card. I was going to use my bird from the Always set, but he wasn't in the box nor was he right out on my desk. I wonder where he flew off to? Some lace, a vintage button and a distressed flower are my little details. I love how this card has a modern feel with the polka dots and vintage flair with the lace and button. I just noticed that the word "hope" is kinda in the center on my card. Couldn't done it better if I'd planned it that way!!

I really want to spread the awareness of diabetes and I'm hoping you'll help me! So I'm gonna offer up a Terrific Treat as a bribe (which I said I would never do, but hey, decisions can be changed.. I've just decided to do this as I'm typing this post so I don't have a picture right at this moment to share with you, but I'll work on that later tonight.

How to win my Terrific Treat?

1. Post a link on your blog to THIS POST (one entry)

2. Create along with me by uploading your grey and red creation to your blog. Leave a link here

so I can come see it (one entry)

3. Bonus entries for sharing the link on any message boards you frequent and for subscribing to

my blog and for sending your card to someone with diabetes.

4. You can take the Diabetes Risk Test HERE. It doesn't take very long and is a really neat way

to see what risk factors you may have if any.

Upgrade

Remember this card?

I finally joined the Fan Club over at SCS earlier this month and one of the challenges is "More is More" where you create a card and then create a second card that has more - an upgrade! I was totally inspired by that challenge on this card.

Always is still my favorite Stampin Up set and I needed a quick but WOW card for my TACO night a few weeks ago (Totally Awesome Creative Opportunity - I saw it somewhere online). I remembered the card I created a few months ago and decided to ramp it up a bit.

(Whoa - what a difference in lighting - I used the exact same paper!) For the new version, I added piercing and a flower and popped up the entire panel on dimensionals. I also changed the sentiment to fit the upcoming holiday!

A couple of months ago it was my turn to host Girls Night Out for my Bunko group. Since our group size has diminished somewhat we decided that we didn't always have to play Bunko - it was hostess choice!! I have to say that I love to play Bunko but it's been fun to do other stuff too - something different every month. Anyway, for my month I decided that we would make cards - one of my favorite things to do!! This is one of the cards we made that night, using a Cuttlebug folder on the bottom half of the card and stamping the bird from Always above in White Craft Ink. I love this big satin ribbon in this shade of green! Hope you are having a great day! It rained here last night so it's still kinda overcast this morning. We've got some errands to run so I'll keep this short and see you tomorrow!! In the meantime, you know what to do --- Have a BEAUTIFUL day!!