Congrats!

Happy Monday!

Hope everyone had a glorious weekend!  

Are you ready for another week?

Well, get ready for today at least because

it's time for another

Pink Elephant  Challenge!

The Pink Elephant Challenge #251

THEME:  Graduation

This week we want to see your projects for graduation!  

There's lots of different graduations these days --kindergarten, high school, college, tech school, officer's school just to name a few.  So we can't wait to see what you create!

Here's my card:

SPIES:

Stamps: Hands and Hats and sentiment (Raisin Boat).

Paper:  White cardbase; Wood pattern from stash; Craft plastic.

Ink:  Tuxedo Black (Momento);

Extras:  Basic circle die (Spellbinders); Craft plastic; Graduation confetti.

I decided to try a shaker card for a change.  I thought it turned out ok.  I thought about gluing a few confetti in the middle but then I didn't want to detract from the stamping behind it.  I used a great graduation stamp from Raisin Boat --- the hands and the hats.  And I decided to go clean lined and kind of masculine so it could fit for anyone.

For Following Challenges:

Pink Elephant Blessings!

Summer Love

Happy Sunday!

It's time for a new Cupcake Challenge!

Cupcake Inspirations #261

Our sponsor this week is

Meljen's Designs

Thanks for sponsoring us! 

Prize: 4 Images

This week's challenge:  Nautical

Inspirational Photo compliments of Styling The Moment

Here's My Card:

SPIES:

STAMPS: Digital Image (Meljens); Starfish (Recollections); Sentiment (Taylored Expressions).

PAPER: White, raspberry, turquoise and royal cardstock; Textured paper (The Paper Store); DP - (Bazzill Basics); Background -from stash.

INK: Tuxedo Black (Momento); Copics on image and starfish.

EXTRAS: Scallop border die (Lil' Inker Designs); Flower dies (Spellbinders); Basic oval die (Spellbinders); Banner die (Reverse Confetti); Baker's Twine; Cord; Turquoise gems.

SWEET CUPCAKE BLESSINGS!

By The Sea...

 

Happy Monday!

Hope all the Moms and Grandmas had

a wonderful Mother's Day!

Today is Pink Elephant Day --

another great challenge

over at 

The Pink Elephant Challenge Blog- 

TPE#250!

 

It's an Inspiration Challenge!

Here's the inspiration photo:

 

Nautical

And here's my card:

SPIES

STAMPS: Puddle Jumper Melody Digital Stamp (ByLoriBoyd); Seagulls (

PAPER: White, red and royal cardstock. DP - from stash -- very old.

INK: Tuxedo Black (Momento); Copics on digital image.

EXTRAS:  Sentiment stickers; Rectangle stitched mats (Reverse Confetti); small circle die (Spellbinders); triangle die (Spellbinders); Striped ribbon; Pier button; tan hemp cord (for sailor's knots).

I recently bought the new set of Lori Boyd digital stamps at ByLoriDesigns and so I decided to use another one for this week's DT card for The Pink Elephant Challenge.  Afterall, Lori is Co-Founder/Co-owner of The Pink Elephant Challenge!  

So, I chose Puddle Jumper Melody because of her cute little striped dress.  I immediately thought navy/white stripe dress.  Well, it started out that way. Then, I got so engrossed in coloring, I colored one stripe too many!  LOL!  But, I think it turned out just as "nautical" this way.  

I was at a loss other than how I wanted to color the image.  Then, after looking through some scrapbook boxes of unfinished photo projects, I hit the mother-load of nautical/beach/ocean scrapbook paper and such that I forgot i had!  So, I thought the two patterns I chose were perfect.  

I even made my own life saver by cutting a small circle die.  Then, using the small circle that goes with my tag die, I cut the hole out in the middle.  Then, I used a very small triangle die to cut the red pieces, glued them on, and trimmed the excess.  I also decided to use sailor's knots.  I had to Google how to tie a sailor's knot to make two of them on top of the decorative ribbon.

I was kind of stumped about the sentiment.  I don't have any nautical type sentiments.  But I did find nautical/beach sentiment stickers in that scrapbook box.  I haven't used sentiment stickers on cards since my very first days/months of card making back in 2005.  

Next, I thought I needed something along with the lifesaver and lo and behold, I remembered I had some decorative beachy buttons --- the pier button.  The seagulls are from one of those stamp sets you get at Michaels in a box I got on sale a long time ago.  So there you have it.  

And don't forget to stop over at The Pink Elephant Challenge Blog and see what my fellow design team members have made and leave them some blog luvin.  

While you are at it, stop over at ByLoriDesigns and check out her shop of digis.  There is a new artist, Dawn Moore, on board with her new releases and Lori's own young daughter, Ella, also has her own line of digi stamps, SoElla.  They are all soooo adorable! 

Then, use this week's inspiration photo to inspire your creativity and share it by linking it up at the TPE blog.  You can use whatever products you want.  

We love to have you play and inspire us too!

For Following Challenges:

The Deconstructed Sketch #150

Pink Elephant Blessings!

You Had Me At...

Happy Mother's Day!  

Hoping all the mothers and grandmothers, 

including those of fur-babies, 

are having a 

fantastic love-filled day!

What better way to celebrate too 

then to have some quiet, creative time 

and 

play along with this week's 

Cupcake Inspirations Challenge!

Cupcake Inspirations Challenge #260

This week our fabulous sponsor is

The Sweet Stamp Shop!

Thank you for sponsoring us!

They are offering a generous prize of a $10 Gift Certificate

to our randomly selected winner!

They have some really adorable stamps.  Make sure you stop by their site.

 Here is our inspirational photo 

for the week:

Photo compliments of: The Cupcake Studio

This week is a COLOR challenge --

Apricot ~ Pistachio ~ Espresso 

For my card, I used the 
sentiment stamp set, "You Had Me At"
from 
The Sweet Stamp Shop.


SPIES:

STAMPS: Image (Raisin Boat); Chat bubble (Taylored Expressions); Sentiments (Sweet Stamp Shop).

PAPER: White, brown and apricot cardstock; DP- Dots (Bazzill Basics).

INK: Timber Brown (Staz On); Copics for image and chat bubble outline.

EXTRAS: Small chat bubble die (Taylored Expressions); Large chat bubble (Simon Says).

FOR FOLLOWING CHALLENGES:

Sweet Cupcake Blessings!

Fantabulous!

Happy Thursday!

Can't believe I'm awake, had one cup of coffee already much less stamping too!  Must be the sunshine streaming in the windows this morning!  Anyhoo, here is a card that turned out "fantabulous" if I do say so myself!

SPIES:

STAMPS: Fan & Sentiment (Sweet Stamp Shop); hearts (Reverse Confetti).

PAPER: White and red cardstock.

INK: Tuxedo Black and Love Letter (Momento); Copics on fan.

EXTRAS: Heart punch (Fiskars).

The idea for this card was inspired by the sketch this week at CAS(E) This Sketch.  I was looking through my stamps for something that signified flow, or air flow and saw my heart stamp set from Reverse Confetti and thus the card was born.  It didn't hurt either that the challenges at Colour ME and Twisted Tuesday called for red/neutral, and black/white and one color, respectively. 

I apologize for the slightly dark photo.  I thought going outside in natural lighting would make it brighter but forgot it was so early, the sun has barely hit the backyard yet.

For Following Challenges:

FANtabulous Blessings!

Floral Person

One more post tonight and probably the last as it is late!  

With Mother's Day just days away, here is another 'Mom' card.  

Incidentally, speaking of Mother's Day, I got to celebrate today receiving a very nice gift in the mail, a new graphics tablet to finally do some digital painting and drawing that I've been wanting to do for about four years now.  Now I can!  Can't wait to spend a day downloading the software and setting it up and playing around!

But until then, I have many cards to make with plenty of stamps and supplies to do so and a very busy Hubs this week in his job, as he begins learning a new system at work.  So, I'll get a bit more time in my craft room undisturbed!

SPIES:

STAMPS: Flower person digital stamp (Bugaboo Stamps); Label (Paper Sweeties); Sentiment (Raisin Boat).

PAPER: Yellow gold card base; white and pink cardstock.  DP - Vintage Bliss (Simple Stories).

INK: Dark yellow (colorbox); Teal green (Hampton Art); Copics on digital stamp.

EXTRAS: Picket fence die (My Favorite Things); Label die (Paper Sweeties); Ragged rectangle die (Spellbinders); yellow gold ribbon; yellow gold sequins and white sequin.

For Following Challenges:

Stampin Royalty - # 226 MOM!

Try Stampin' On Tuesday #165 - Bugs and Blooms

Mom Blessings!

Happy Mother's Day!

Good Evening again!  

Wow, I'm on a roll with my posts!

And that's good because there's another challenge to reveal:

{PIN}spirational Challenges #106!

We have 3 awesome sponsors this week:

Bugaboo Digi Stamps

Prize:  7 Digis

Digistamps 4 Joy

Prize: $10 Worth of Stamps

The Stamping Chef

Prize:  3 Digis

And here is our 

Inspiration Photo for the week:

Super cool photo with such a fantastic quote 

that is perfect for Mother's Day!

Here is my card using a Bugaboo digtal stamp:

SPIES:

STAMPS: Digtial Image and Sentiment (Bugaboo Stamps).

PAPER: Gray cardstock base; DP - In Bloom (My Mind's Eye).

INK: Copics.

EXTRAS: Border emboss folder (Darice); gold ribbon; Diamond Stickles; coral enamel dots.

I used  a digi stamp from Bugaboo for my card.  Is she not the cutest little thing?  Love all those flowers too!  I got my inspiration from the little leaf at the top of the charm.  It led me to the patterned paper, In Bloom, by My Mind's Eye.  I love all the peachy shades, pale yellows and grays.  There are actually pale yellow flowers on the background paper behind the digital stamp.  

It took me longer than I realized to color the image.  I had to be creative with the Copics that I have in order to find the right shades to come close to the colors in the patterned paper.  I am very happy with how it turned out.  I decided not to color the frame all the way in and leave it a little sparse to emulate the softness of the patterned paper.  To finish it off I added Diamond Stickles for some sparkle in the flowers and her hairbow.

Make sure you stop over at the {PIN}spirational Challenge Blog and check out all the wonderful projects from my fellow Design Team members.  We have several new members joining us and this week is their debut!  So check them out, visit their blogs and leave them some blog luv!  Then, use the inspirational photo to make your own paper project to play along with us.  You might be one of our next winners and win one of the great prizes being offered this week from our fabulous sponsors!

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Catch The Bug - Stella's Sketch #209

Eureka Stamps Challenge #88 - Mother's Day Flowers

Early Mother's Day Blessings!

Watts N Watts

SPIES:

STAMPS: Light bulbs and sentiments (Simon Says)

PAPER: Teal, tan and white cardstock; 

INK: Teal green (Hampton Arts); Tuxedo Black (Momento); Copic marker for hearts.

EXTRAS: Red seam binding; Heart Framelits (Sizzix).

Ok don't blow a gasket or anything, but here is another post today from me!  I know, amazing isn't it?  I'm on a mission to try out a lot of my new stuff from the past couple months and with the Hubs busy installing new soffits, I am tucked inside my craft room to get away from the relentless hammering (or at least that's my excuse).

So here's a little about what I did with the card:

I cut a heart shape out of the card base and then stamped the light bulb stamp twice to make a heart inside the white space.  Then I used the solid light bulb stamped and teal ink and stamped over the outline stamp.  Next, I stamped two more light bulbs, colored the hearts red and fussy cut them and glued them on the green ones.  I didn't like all the white so I used two of my framelit hearts to make a red heart frame.  I wanted something clean lined and un-frufru-ie so I used red seam binding.

Freshly Made Sketches #134

Pals Paper Arts Challenge #202

Watts of Blessings!

You Blow Me Away!

Good Morning Monday, Again!

A beautiful Carolina morning it is too!  

The sun is shining, birds are chirping.  It's going to be a beautiful spring day!

It's also time for 

The Pink Elephant Monday Challenge #249 !

Today's Challenge is a Theme:

Mother's Day

Mother's Day in the U.S.

 is next 

Sunday, May 11th!

Stop over at The Pink Elephant Challenge Blog and check out the rest of my fellow design team's fabulous inspirational projects.  Then show us your beautiful projects made for MOM by linking up with us.  

We love having you play along!

Here is what I created:

SPIES:

STAMPS: Digital Image:  Puddle Jumper Big Bubble Girl Bonnie-with sentiment (ByLoriDesigns). Sentiment-"to a sweet mom" (Hero Arts, I think).

PAPER: White cardbase.  Background DP and paper pieces-Hello Spring (Doodlebug Designs); Border layers (Recollections - old, old).
INK: Tuxedo Black (Momento); Copics on digital image.
EXTRAS: Circle border die (Lil' Inker Designs); Banner (Reverse Confetti); Stitched rectangle mat (Lil' Inker Designs); Glossy Accents (on gum machine); purple baker's twine; Enamel Dots (Recollections) - except for orange enamel dot, which is home made from a plastic bead.


I had bought this image for last week's design card but life had other plans for me, so I decided to use it for this week.  Is she not adorable?  Stop by ByLoriDesigns and check out all of Lori's fabulous work.  She has a wonderful new set just released!

The challenge this week at 4 Crafty Chicks has been paper piecing and so I decided to paper piece little Bonnie's outfit. I used the sketch at Seize the Sketch and chose to do a layer of "bubbles" or "gumballs", whichever you prefer.  And, I added a layer of glossy accents to the gumball machine to give it a more "glassy" look.

For Following Challenges:

4 Crafty Chicks #192 - Paper Piecing

Pink Elephant Blessings!