Focus....

Glitter and embossing, how fun!

I saw a technique that was new to me the other day while surfing the net where you mix glitter and clear embossing powder, so I decided to give it a whirl.

I combined some of my new PK Glitz transparent pink glitter with the embossing powder and after stamping Flourishes "Peony" image with Versamark, I scooped the mix and heat set. I will for sure be using this again. Love the way the glitter sticks so beautifully on the card. I fussy cut the flower and sponged the edges with pink ink.

I then stamped the leaves from that same stamp and hand cut.

I have also been loving seeing the mix of embossed images as a background. I punched 4 scalloped squares running each of these through different embossing folders. 

I layered these onto another piece of the Bazzill pink card stock that I had stamped my flower onto.

I then used foam dots to attach to the card base which I had run through a swiss dot folder.

 I am again entering my cards at 

  Moxie Fab World -- Focal Point Challenge to celebrate the new Card Design Handbook 

  Flourishes Sprinkles on top where you add glitter, beads, flower soft...it's up to you.

You have until August 31st to enter the birthday challenges at Flourishes and until September 24th  at Moxie Fab World so plenty of time.....so please check these both out.

Sweet,sweet lilacs.....

I hope you aren't getting tired of my posts celebrating Flourishes 5th birthday because I am having a blast playing in them. 

This card is for the "Sweet Celebrations" challenge where we are to use a focal image or sentiment that is sweet and lilacs to me are the sweetest! 

I can remember growing up with lots of lilac bushes around our home and the sweet scent that was around each Spring, to this day the smell of lilacs take me back home.

And I have also been sharing cards for the Moxie Fab World Card Design Handbook challenges. 

This one is called Gallon/Quart/Pint which is about finding balance in your colors. If you use 3 colors: use a bunch of one color, a little less of one and just a bit of the third.

As you can see my gallon color is the purples, with a quart of green and just a pint of yellow.....how fun was this!

I stamped this beautiful lilac bunch from Flourishes Lilac set after coloring it with Stampin' Up markers and filling in with Tim Holtz distress inks in peeled paint and milled lavender. Adding glitter from PT Glitz and a few purple gems. I also added some of the yellow glitter to the wings of the bee.

I hope you will stop by at both of these sites and take a look around and I am sure you will be hooked just like me.

Card Details:

Paper: Gina K heavy weight white, Stampin Up

Other: Cuttlebug embossing folder, Studio G gems, PT Glitz glitter, Stampin' Up certainly celery satin ribbon, Scalloped oval Spellbinder dies

Ink: SU markers, Tim Holtz distress inks

Stamps: Flourishes Lilac set, Peony set (bee)

  

Thanksgiving Invites for Flourishes

Well, I am back again with my third entry for the 5th Birthday party  challenges at Flourishes where it is a 'banner day'!   We are to use a banner or pennant style embellishment!

I decided to create my Thanksgiving invites which combine invitations to Thanksgiving dinner at my home with a Thanksgiving greeting. 

Thanksgiving is and has been celebrated for many years at our home for family and friends and is one of my very favorite holidays and traditions.

I used their "Autumn Flourish" set to create my banners and decorate the card.

Stamping with the leaf and acorn flourish on to very vanilla card stock which I then hand cut into pennants and layered onto black ones, also hand cut and threaded with black twine.

I then stamped my beautiful frilly leaf with the invitation from "You are Invited", I colored this with markers so that I could split the words.

I think these are the perfect quick but beautiful cards to send to my loved ones for 

our celebration this year.

Have you checked out the great celebration going on at Flourishes?

You have until August 31st to get your entry in, what are you waiting on?

I am also entering this at CAS-ual Fridays -clean or simple project featuring banners or flags. Love playing their CAS challenges.  

Thanks for stopping by today and hope to see you again soon.

Card details:

Paper: Stampin' Up very vanilla, black, chocolate chip

Ink: TH distress ink, chocolate chip by SU

Other: Flourishes stamps "Autumn Flourish" and "You are Invited"

Birthday Celebration at Flourishes

I am back for a second post on this beautiful Saturday....hope you are having a great weekend.

While floating around blogland this week, I came upon Flourishes 5th Birthday Celebration and since I have several sets of their stamps that needed some love, I decided to play along with their challenges...this is just one of them, be sure and check out all of the rest and watch for my posts with the other 3 cards I am creating.  

I am also back for a go at another  Moxie Fab World Card Design Handbook challenge: Movement.  

I am having so much fun creating for both of these sites! It is challenging and fun to stretch yourself every once in a while. Be sure and take a look at Moxie Fab, you will learn so much and be sure and check out my post earlier this week featuring another of their challenges.

Using Flourishes set "Spring Ephemerals Collection 1" for my main image which I heat embossed with white embossing powder and chalks for my background I created a soft flowing base for the butterflies.

These were happy leftovers from my new set of Spellbinders dies.

I used the same curved rectangle Spellbinder die for the inside, adding embossed and die cut butterflies from a Stampin' Up embosslit die with liquid pearls.

Now, I need to run to the grocery store and get dinner started but hope to have some more time to create the rest of my cards and get them posted soon. 

Be sure and stop by Flourishes and Moxie Fab to check out all of the great challenges going on this week. Flourishes doesn't end until August 31 and you have until September 24 to get your cards linked at Moxie Fab!

Angels and Fairies

Well, folks it is back to work....the team at Sugar Creek Hollow was given a break with our fabulous alumni designers filling in for us last week and we did so appreciate the week off. Thanks again ladies for such beautiful inspiration cards!

Our theme this week at SCH is "Fairies and Angels" in a Vintage/Shabby Chic style.

We have the wonderful A Day for Daisies as our sponsor this week and one randomly drawn winner will receive a $12 gift certificate to the store where you can choose your very own images.   And one other person will be chosen as this week's Top Pick and be in the running for a guest designer spot.

I used Tammy's image "Baby Cloud" for my card. What newborn is not an angel?

I had so much fun creating this card. I used some digital papers from Aimee Harrison Design's and her set that I purchased a while back "Dew Kissed". If you enjoy playing with digital images, check out the link which will take you to a sale page of retiring kits...these are a great price.

I printed some extra design papers which I die cut and layered behind my sweet image.

He was colored with Spectrum Noir alcohol markers with some PK glitz glitter added for some sparkle.

I hand cut the banner with Welcome Baby and added a clothespin swiped in white ink and attached to my seam binding.

Here is a close up of my image so you can see the glitter a little better.

Welcome all the gals back at Sugar Creek Hollow and please join us this week as we enjoy A Day for Daisies beautiful images. We love seeing your work.

Happy Weekend Everyone!!!

Repetition...

Some of you that also follow my friend Jennie's Blog "Stampin' Away the Day" may have seen her post for Moxie Fab's Repetition Challenge . 

They have several challenges now going on through September 24th to showcase their new book Card Design Handbook which by the way looks like a must have. It illustrates 24 different lessons on design and this week through challenges they are sharing 5 of those.

After looking through the posts up so far, I was hooked and decided to give them a try. This is my card for the "Repetition Challenge", be sure and take a look at their post and examples and join in as you will have a chance to win a copy of their new book and also be in the running to have your card featured in PaperCrafts magazines March/April 2013 issue.

I used the sketch this week at Freshly Made Sketches as my jumping off spot.

I love these images from Doodle Pantry's set Ginkgo Leaves , I used the single and multiple leaf images in outline form which I colored with my Spectrum Noir pens and mounted at different heights with pop dots. Love the beautiful sentiment which is from the same set.

This card was simple and quick to put together....now why don't you join Jennie, myself and the others that have taken this challenge to repeat yourself.

Card Details:

Paper: Stampin' Up Certainly Celery, Bazzill textured pink, Creative Imaginations "Devotion"
Ink: Spectrum Noir, certainly celery
Other: Stampin' Up scalloped oval punch, DMC embroidery thread

Christmas at Beccy's Place

Hi everyone, and before you think it....yes I have another Christmas card but I am working on some things other than that and hope to have them ready to show soon.

I made this card last month and never posted it so I wanted to be sure to get it in for the August challenge going on over at Beccy's Place where "Anything Goes" using either a free or purchased image of hers.    This is one of her freebies "Christmas Lantern" and I love it so much.

She has some great new images of African images up in her store and I may just have to do a little shopping, as I know the guys in my life would love cards made with them.

Stop by and take a look around and you still have time to enter this month's challenge.

Now off to work on some more cards, Rick and I have been doing some cleaning the last couple of days and I am due some play time.

Hugs and wishing you a happy day!

CAS with Kraft!

Happy Sunday afternoon....we are getting wonderful rain showers here and I am spending the afternoon in my stamping room listening to it fall and enjoying every minute of it.

I went looking and decided to play in a couple of challenges that I have not played in forever, Flourishes Timeless Tuesday where they are requesting Kraft in your project 

and 

The Paper Players CAS with the addition of paper piecing.

I love paper piecing and decided to give it a try with Flourishes set "Poppy Patch" designed by Marcella Hawley using some of my new papers from Creative Imaginations pack 

"Orchard Harvest".  These are also some of Spellbinders new dies "Orchard Harvest Tags and Accents". I knew when looking at them at the craft show they would be a staple in my die collection.

Can't wait to show you the gorgeous leaves and pear die in this set.

I stamped some of the poppy pods for the inside, paper piecing one of those and adding a dash of color on the other two.

Be sure and check out these two challenges and give them a try! 

Now off to see what else I can get into, lol.

hugs to you all.....

Family Reunion at SCH this week

Happy Saturday my friends.......

I know that normally you would be seeing my card for Sugar Creek Hollow but the design team, thanks to our wonderful owner Cec has this week off for vacation.

Some of the alumni from previous years at SCH will be creating cards to inspire you with this week's theme "Family Reunion". I hope you will stop by and visit with these talented ladies and thank them for stepping in for us this week and sharing their fabulous talent. I know that I can't wait to visit them myself. I had the pleasure of working with some of them and miss their inspiring work.....

Now, I am off to enjoy my day shooting with some friends, how lucky am I???   Shopping last Saturday and now shooting. Hope you have a great weekend planned.

Soooo in a Christmas frame of mind!

                 

I always hate it when I think the retailers are pushing the seasons in too fast and I know we are not even close to Christmas yet and I know that I have been posting lots of Christmas cards, but I just had to make these cards, lol! Hope you will all forgive me .....

I wanted to enter the challenge this week at Joan's Gardens . Her criteria intrigued me as I am not sure that I have made an all white card or if I have I don't remember it. Here are the requested items:

• Make a Christmas Card
• Use all white 
• Use something from nature (deer, bear, bird etc)
• Use glitter or stickles

I used Papertrey Ink products from the paper to the dies and the stamped sentiment inside which are part of their "In the Meadow" sets. Love the clean way the dies cut. I also used 3 different embossing folders. the one I used on the tree is actually a full embossed tree in itself, I simply slipped my die cut tree into the folder where I wanted it to be and ran it through the Bigshot. The swiss dot and divine swirls where used for the background and my snow. I used mica glitter on the swirls to create my snow. I just love the deer in this set. I added some white pearls from Want2Scrap where we all picked up some bling on our last shopping trip.

Now to my second holiday card, I am showing you another of the beautiful sets that Laurie released this month at Doodle Pantry featuring this gorgeous color French Horn. This is a previously released set which she brought back in color form for August along with a card kit, if you have not seen those yet.....please check out this month's releases which you can find here .

This is a great card to mass produce using whatever background paper you desire as there are several color variations in this set. I used some of my fave retired SU papers along with cherry cobbler and black card stock. Choose your favorite die and layer for a quick card.

I used the same die to cut my sentiment (which comes in the new "Holly Stag" set and one that I want to use soon) and a black layer....call it done.

There are still specials going on at Doodle Pantry and our challenge is still going on at the DP Challenge Blog until the 24th of August, so be sure and take a look.

I may just have my cards ready this year, wouldn't that be great!!

Hope you will come back soon to visit.

Thanks for stopping by!

New Goodies....

Hello my friends, Happy Monday!

Let me tell you how great our trip to Charlotte for the CK Convention was, it was so wonderful spending the day with my friends, shopping, laughing and having lunch. And did we laugh!!!

Just sorry that we can only get together once a year, too bad we don't all live as close as Olga and I do. We have made a promise to try and get together soon to craft.

I made a couple of things yesterday afternoon and wanted to share.

 This first card uses another of my old Stampin' Up sets, "Nature's Wonders" from 2002 and I loved the shadows already in this beautiful stamp which I used to help with my coloring. I recently bought some of the Spectrum Noir pens and I picked up the reds and pinks on Saturday and wanted to give them a go.

We were able to watch Janelle Marshall give a coloring demo and if you would like to take a look, her videos can be seen here and if you are interested in her product line there is a link on the videos.   I love these shades of pink in the set.

I am entering this card into a few challenges: 

  Robyn's Fetish where Challene #120 is Monochromatic 

  Creative Inspirations Paint which is also Monochromatic ( they use a lot of paints and that is this month's prize, would love to try those)

  Sentimental Sundays Challenge 115 CAS with the option of a sketch.

Now to my second card, this was made in honor of the wonderful store Stampers Alley located in Mooresville, NC...if you are ever in the area be sure and look them up. We were 30 minutes past closing time getting by there after stopping for a late lunch and so disappointed, I know you feel sorry for all of us, after all we had only had a full day of shopping at the convention but you should have seen our long faces, lol. We got out of our cars planning on saying our goodbyes as we headed on home when the door was opened and the owner who was finishing up some things before heading home welcomed us in to look around. That is where the pictures you saw on Olga's blog were taken. How sweet was that? We all found more goodies we couldn't go home without and that is where my card comes in. 

Don't you love that balloon? It is from the new Hero Arts set "Flying Air Ships" and the paper is from a clearance pack of glitter paper that I purchased there "Best Creation-Travel Forever" and that check bg is actually from the bag she put our goodies in.

I am entering this card into the challenge at Stampalot where the theme is "Take Flight". I would love to take a ride in a hot air balloon someday! Speaking of which, I can't wait to show you something using the new balloon themed papers, etc that I got, but that will have to wait until another day.

The only thing that could have made this trip any better was if you had been with us.

Let's Take a Trip.....

Welcome!! I am off to see the wizard....well not really but I am off to the CKC in Charlotte, NC today with my buddy Olga and to meet up with our friends Jennie and SCH's very own Linda   for a bit of shopping and lunch. How much better could that be?

Today at Sugar Creek Hollow Challenge #24 is Vintage Travel and we invite you to create a shabby chic/vintage creation with that in mind. Be sure to stop by SCH blog to get all of the details.  

I again pulled out an old Stampin' Up set and joined it with another of the new sets I picked up on our last stamp show trip. I was lucky enough to get several Justrite clear stamp sets for only $5 each. My vintage luggage stamp is from SU's Travel Post. I stamped it on design paper from First Editions Boho Chic and layered it onto Bo Bunny's et cetera papers which are another of my finds at the show.

Everything you see, the Fleur De Li's, flourishes and the beautiful Paris stamp which is designed to fit perfectly in the Labels 4 Spellbinders die is from the "Greetings from Paris" Justrite set.....don't you love the shabby, distressed look to these?

Even the makings for the postcard are part of this set with me adding script to make it look more authentic from a Hero Arts stamp.

I am using Spellbinders Ric Rac borders for the first time, pairing it with some of the lace that I found a while back. So happy with this card and hope you like it as well.

Now why don't you travel on over to the Sugar Creek Hollow Blog and see what the rest of the gals have for you today and then join us this week with your card.  

Now where was that yellow brick road??????

So Blessed...

I am such a blessed person! God has been so very good to me, I have a wonderful husband, great family, a good home and friends that cheer and give me support.

 When I went to visit my dear friend Kathy at Lucky Stamper I found she had given me the Liebster award. You will love her blog and if you are not already a follower, I encourage you to look around and become one. She does CAS to perfection!

This award is used to show appreciation of smaller blogs, like mine with under 200 followers and to help spread joy to fellow bloggers. "Leibster" comes from the German word 'dearest' or 'beloved' but can also mean 'favorite'. This award is a peer to peer award in which fellow bloggers present the award to their favorite bloggers with less than 200 follower.

Now to send you on to some fabulous blogs that I know you will love:
Thanks to all of you that inspire me and enrich my life every day!

 Pat at Pips Pastimes

Linda at The Stamper's Touch 

Renee at Renlymat's World

Judi at Sweet Bloomin Scrap

Lizzi at My Paper Story


Each of these ladies has an inspiring blog with loads of things to inspire you, you won't be sorry that you visited!

I also want to share with you another goodie that I got in the mail this week. I won the random draw for last month's prize package from Inky Antics which I am showing here. I can't wait to try this honeycomb paper and hope to have something to show you soon.

Thanks for being part of my blessed world.

Snowflakes Falling!

Hi there, have you entered your card at this month's challenge at our challenge blog for Doodle Pantry? DPDC26 is up and running and you have until August 24th to get your card entered.  

Crescent Ants is available for free at the blog until August 15th, so hurry on over to get yours. You may enter the challenge twice, once with the featured set and again with any other DP image.

My card uses the newly released set Snowflake Sheep to create this card. Using the color snowflakes I re sized, copied and pasted to create my very own 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of design paper.  

In keeping with the sentiment from the same set, I punched several snowflakes using a Martha Stewart punch. I am loving the softness of the blues with this green for my layers. I am glad that I saved this paper that I created as I can see myself printing this and using it again for more of my holiday cards this year.

For the inside, I used more of the paper which I again layered, this time with another of the sentiments and the snowflake from this fabulous set.

You won't want to miss this one or any of the other great sets being released and showcased by our great team .

If you are a fan of Sweet Sketch Wednesday you may have already recognized this week's sketch which I used for my design.

  

This is my first time back playing since leaving their great design team and I want you guys to know that I miss you!!!  

Be sure to stop by and play along with them as well.

There are lots of things going on at Doodle Pantry: Check out the Specials Page .

So glad you had time to check my card out and hope to see you soon.

Vintage Old/New at Sugar Creek Hollow

Happy Saturday my friends....hope you have had a fabulous week and are ready to get to this week's challenge at Sugar Creek Hollow   where we are having a vintage old/new theme. We want you to use something old and something new on your card...your choice, just be sure to tell us in your post what they are. For my card I used one of my favorite older Stampin' Up sets, Garden Collage which I colored with my new Spectrum Noir markers and sponged with my very old Stampin' Up chalks. Don't you love those papers? They are some that I just bought weekend before last while at the stamp show Olga , Becky and I attended. They are K&Co "McKenna" and I picked them up on clearance at a craft store we went to after the show. I love the pad and see myself using them a lot in the near future. 

On the chipboard butterfly is distress crackle paint in antique linen, I stamped the lace from Gina K Designs vintage borders on the butterfly and added some of her pearls. I also used the full border for the inside of this card. I didn't put a sentiment as I am not sure what occasion I will send this card for.

 

I have missed visiting with everyone for a bit as I have been away or completely tied up for the last couple of weeks, but I hope to have more time to visit and catch up with everyone soon.

My niece and I went to the beach for a few days to celebrate her graduation from college in education....she went by for her degree after spending lots of years as a hair stylist. I am very proud of her!!

I hope you will all stop by at SCH and see what my talented teammates have created to inspire you this week and will post your own card and share along with us. 

Have a wonderful weekend my friends and thanks for stopping in!

August Release Time at Doodle Pantry....

Wow, are you going to love this new idea from Laurie at Doodle Pantry where the new release has just gone live for August. She has created a PDF file which includes instructions,pre designed 4" square card panels, images, sentiments, two pages that have ready to print, cut and fold cards along with 6 tags.

Blessed Christmas has always been a favorite of mine and I was so happy to showcase it for you today.

These first two pictures show the 8 cards that I created. I printed the set out twice, on both white and ivory card stock. I created 4 of them adding just the images and sentiments and a few die cuts which if you are in a hurry to get lots finished this will sure speed things up.

My second set, I used various things in my stash to embellish them a bit more, but still keeping them fast to create and easy to mail.

This picture shows all of the elements you will be able to cut, die cut and punch from the pages you print out from your kit. There will be 4 square card fronts, 9 images, 8 sentiments and two strips of design paper....now the creativity is up to you. I used Spellbinder dies, Stampin' Up and Clear Dollar Stamps dies to cut a variety of shapes but you can do this however you want. Make them all the same or all different, that is all up to you.

These are the 4 pre designed cards that I cut and folded to create 4.25 square cards along with 6 tags...aren't they just the cutest?

This picture shows you the two sets I used to create my 8 cards, using both the white and ivory card stock. 

I wanted to show you some closer shots of some of the cards. The top ones just use a circle die and scallop punch with a gem and a layer of the Labels 4 dies from Spellbinders.

I used the sentiment as my focal image for the card on the left and added the strip of design paper behind the card front image. For the other,turning my sentiment on the side and adding a couple of pearls gives this a completely different look.

I love the way Laurie has designed these to give us the options of being as creative with them as we desire and can you believe that all of this is only $3.00 a set. So hop on over and let us help you out with your Christmas cards this season. This is only one of the PDF file sets being released this month, so I know you will find one that suits your tastes. We also have some gorgeous new digital sets being released today as well as some new colored versions of our older released sets. What a great time to shop.

Be sure and look for all of the specials at the shop as well. I will try and tell you about those in the next few days. I have been away and will be on my way home when this posts and as such are unable to link you directly to the specials page, but it is easy to find at Doodle Pantry.

I also want to remind you that our DPDC26 challenge at the Doodle Pantry Blog will start today at Noon. We just ask that you use a Doodle Pantry image to enter. Be sure and stop by for this month's free image and all the details.  

Thanks so much for stopping by and hope you will stop by the store and see what the rest of the Creative Team has been up to. 

Happy Day......