Show CASE - Upsy Daisy by Brenda

As much as I have wanted to get into my craft room and create a card, it just hasn't happened.  Even so, 2011 has been wonderful so far.  I have been taking life at an easy pace and thoroughly enjoying everything I do.  I never really made it a New Year's resolution but it seems like a good one now.

I've actually have a backlog of a few Show CASE cards.  Older cards I had saved in my files.  I haven't added many lately simply because I haven't been surfing as much.  Still it's great to revisit some old favorites, like today's card.

When free time is in short supply, a card CASE (Copy And Share with Everyone) can be the perfect way to have a little fun!.  Show CASE is my personal attempt to have that time for stamping , without of the pressure to create something totally original.  I want to pay tribute to the many talented stampers out in the blogosphere that are so inspiring to me.  I hope you enjoy seeing my "take" on their creation. 

Upsy Daisy by Brenda @ Card Scraps.

My changes:
I used a different flourish (from Priceless.)
I added brads and piercing instead of a second ribbon.
My sentiment, from Upsy Daisy.

Not huge changes.  Seems you always have to make a few to accommodate the supplies on hand.

If you want to see Brenda's card it's HERE.

Bargello - Curtain Call Act #31

Here we are, together again for the Curtain Call Challenge.  As always, our stamping leader, Stacey has given the Crew a wonderful inspiration photo.

I was particularly excited to try the Bargello technique.  It's simple enough.  The effect is really great!  I didn't want to cover up all that beautiful work so I kept my stamping to a minimum.  The sentiment stamped on vellum also helped.

Are you thinking I missed a challenge color?  Pretty in Pink?  Well, I tried to work in more of it...it just didn't work out for me.  However, it is in there!  Just look closely at the Tea Party Designer Series Paper.

So, are you ready to check out the rest of the Crew?

Amy White @ Devlinwhite Designs
Andrea Roose @ Andrea's Scrap - und Stempel-Blog
Iwona Palamountain (Chupa) @ Random Acts of Creativity
Julie Smith @ Paper and Such
Lea Lawson @ Lea's Cupcakes & Sunshine
Marisa Ritzen @ Rosemary Reflections
Melissa Hubert@ My Paper Obsession
Sue Kohler@ My Inner Reflection

And our leader, of course....Stacey @ Stacey's Stamping Stage

Please join us and post your creation over at Stacey's using Mr. Linky.

Sunday and the Curtain Call Crew

Before I show my contribution to Curtain Call Challenge, I have a short story to share. Yesterday was the first day of Spring here in the Northern hemisphere and it snowed here in Iowa! The previous week had been gorgeous, with lots of sun and warm temperatures. All our snow was gone, which was quite surprising considering how much snow we had, and how quick the warm-up came. When my daughter saw the snow SHE CRIED! She wailed, "I'm so sick of snow!" Poor thing! I have to agree! I am SO ready for Spring weather!

So, onto my card. These are the colors for the week....very pretty purse for the inspiration.I'm not too sure I did it justice.....So I MAY take another stab at it this week. In the meantime, I'm anxious to take a look at the rest of the Crew's contributions.

Amy White @ Devlinwhite Designs
Andrea Roose @ Andrea's Scrap - und Stempel-Blog
Iwona Palamountain (Chupa) @ Random Acts of Creativity
Julie Smith @ Paper and Such
Lea Lawson @ Lea's Cupcakes & Sunshine
Marisa Ritzen @ Rosemary Reflections
Melissa Hubert@ My Paper Obsession
Sue Kohler@ My Inner Reflection

And our leader, of course....Stacey @ Stacey's Stamping Stage

Please join us! And link to your creation over at Stacey's using Mr. Linky!

Look What I Did This Monday Morning

Hello again everyone! Yes, my posting streak came to an end this weekend. I did go to my auction, but I left after a couple hours. I couldn't see waiting around for the one or two items I was moderately interested in. Instead I came home and attend to my house and family. My parents came over and went sledding with the kids and had dinner with us. Sunday was football. ALL weekend long I picked at my Christmas tree! I'm ALMOST done.

In fact, that's what I should be working on this Monday morning, but I had an idea and just had to work with it right away! My daughter received this GIANT Pokemon card for Christmas. She is 12 and Pokemon CRAZY! Since they don't make card protectors this big I decided to frame it for her. I used a frame we had lying around the house, along with patterned paper from the Sweet Pea pack. Also, some Tempting Turquoise and Orchid Opulence cardstock. The embossed swirls and stars on the corners are from Priceless. A fun and quick project. I hope she doesn't think it's too girly! I tried not to over do it!Anyway, I just had to share my project, even though it's a little out of the norm! I hope to be back with another card today and start a new streak. It will be tough.

Ornament Punch.....Priceless

It took me a month or so to warm up to the Ornament Punch. I couldn't see buying a punch that I could only use at one time of the year. Well, all it took to change my mind was seeing a card using the punch out as a vase and that thought was out the window. I started to think of all the different ways I could decorate my ornaments and next thing I know, it's on my next order!Here's my first card using it. I didn't have a great branch to hang my ornaments from so I used the swirls from Priceless. The berries were added from Berry Christmas. It seemed a little bare and that's when I added the crimped, scalloped top. I always like to put a sentiment on the outside of the card, but it just didn't seem appropriate here, so I stopped.

Now I'm off to have a little leftover turkey dinner! It's me, my daughter and my mother-in-law tonight. The guys took a little jaunt to the Mississippi today to fish for walleye. They haven't returned yet, so they'll be picking up dinner on their way home. I guess they did OK, though. So, it was a good day for everybody. I hope it was the same for you!

Scrapload of Cards! Again!

I have another scrapload of cards to share with you today! I had hopes of posting this earlier in the weekend, but time got away from me again. Why do the weekends go so fast? Saturday I had LOADS of fun at a local auction. It's not often my hubby goes with me, but this day he did. I know he regretted it. We closed the place down. There from to start to finish. Plus, our vehicle was completely full. I even had boxes on my lap! Lots of goodies. My biggest purchases: a dresser for our son and a primitive table. I bought lots of box lots. I'm hoping to post the treasures on my other blog: Made Or Found sometime on Monday, if you want to check it out!
I'm still on my endless quest to use my scraps. So, these cards, like the last bunch, came from my scrap file. I had lots of this DSP in So Saffron because I had cut a bunch for a class, then changed my mind about using them! They are just about gone!I really like this image from Friends 24-7. I challenged myself to use it because I thought it would be the neglected image in the set. I love the bird from this set, but now I really appreciate this one, too.I also like stamping them on the DSP. I didn't feel the need to color them! Couldn't be easier!
This last one isn't inked on DSP but I did use the Stitched background on the Very Vanilla cardstock. It's pretty subtle. (Click on it to get a closer look.) I used Blush Blossom because everything else I tried was just too dark. The piercing came about when I took out the brown thread I had stitched into the card. It was just too much. This is better, I think.

So, I hope to do more challenges this week! The big obstacle will be my daughter's Halloween costume. I haven't even started! So, if you hear from me, you know I either finished it quickly or became totally frustrated! We'll just see....

Hello Again....I've Been Away!

Hey my stamping friends! I've missed you. I never imagined when I posted my May Day baskets that would be my last post for over a month! Didn't see that coming! Life just got really busy along with a serious lack of mojo! I'm still not sure if it's back, but I'm here trying to make it happen!

For these past weeks I had many stamping challenges come to my inbox. I hated missing them. One that I've grown particularly fond of is Karen's over at the sweetest thing. She posts a "Sweet Sunday" sketch each week. I've participated in only one so far, but I hope to make it a regular occasion.

Sketch challenges are more difficult for me than color challenges, so I need to stretch myself and maybe remedy this!

I needed another Father's Day card but I am short on masculine images. I recently used Lovely As A Tree for Father's Day card and didn't want to repeat myself. So, I went with one of my "go to" sets Wonderful Favorites. I wasn't sure how much I was loving the Riding Hood Red DSP (from the Bella Rose pack.) I was thinking it was too feminine. Once I added the last element, the swirl from Priceless, I was satisfied. Completely fell into that one. I decided that area was too bare and reluctantly added the swirls. Do you ever have that feeling making a card? Wondering if you should just stop before you ruin a perfectly good card? I gambled and won this time! I think the swirls make it look like a bandanna. Now if I had only had the foresight to stamp it on black instead of Chocolate Chip! Ah, the life of a perfectionist!




Hope you are finding time to stamp and hope to see you again soon, my friends!

Kristina's Color Inspiration #14

Good morning and good Friday to you all! It is finally feeling like spring here in Iowa and I have been taking advantage. I have been working in my yard almost everyday this week. I am hoping today will be the end of the grunt work for a while. I will be dividing many of my perennials today. I probably have about a half dozen that need it, so hopefully it won't take too long.

I'm posting before I go outside just in case it turns into a bigger job than I expect!

I'm still working on cards for Kristina's Color Inspiration. I have been lax in this as well. I've missed her last two entries. So, if I want to do them all, I need to do about 10 more cards. We'll see....I'm not making any promises. I have to say, I've hit a brick wall when it comes to these challenges.

Today's card uses one of my favorite In Colors from last year, River Rock. I'm really enjoying the simplicity of this card. I LOVE the swirls from Priceless behind the "dream big" sentiment. I also love my Spiral punch on the side. It's a fun one to use! I'm a sucker for punches! I used the Trio Flower punch for the flower dotting my "i", too. I used a bit of designer paper from last years Halloween pack under the ribbon to add a little punch. That's about all there is to tell!

So, I hope you have a great weekend! I will be busy attending my son's baseball games, with multiple games on Saturday and Sunday. If the weather stays nice it will be a pleasure. See ya again soon!

Kristina's Color Inspiration #26

Did I miss a day? Ooops! Did anybody notice? I was home all day yesterday sewing and posting totally slipped my mind! Well, then I am overdue for another Kristina's Color Inspiration! I love this color combination, so bright and summer-like. Far from the crazy weather we are having here! Sunny and 55° one yesterday to expecting freezing rain today! It's gloomy out so this card is to contrast that. This is my first acetate card. I wish I could say it went really smoothly. Not the acetates fault, all mine! First, I dropped an inked stamp on my acetate! I hate to waste it, so I cut the it in half. Now I really only have a card front. So, the striped Bashful Blue is my card back and I sew them together. Problem solved....I guess. Not too much more to tell on this one, the flowers are from Eastern Blooms. The swirls from Priceless and the sentiment from All Year Cheer II. Not my best work, for sure but hey I'm on a mission!

PS-Kristina has posted this weeks challenge, so hopefully my next card will be Color Inspiration #43!

Kristina's Color Inspiration #40

How happy was I when I went Kristina's site today to see she's back from Disneyland and posted a new challenge. Great to "see" you Kristina! You sure were missed! I was talking with a girlfriend of mine about how much we look forward to going to your site!

Initially, I thought I would go with a spring floral theme. Almost immediately I switched to "boyish." I had seen a card Beate had done many, many months ago using stars and this stamp and I've been wanting to put my spin on it. I used the Taken with Teal dotted paper from Loves Me as the anchor for my stamped image. I inked the rocket, then embossed with black ink to have it pop a little more. Water coloring so much fun once you have watercolor paper! I masked off the rocket and sponged Taken with Teal in the remaining background. Most of the stars are all cut out of So Saffron, just the one on the bottom middle is More Mustard. I had to embellish my stars with a stamp from Priceless inked in Versamark, then embossed with clear embossing powder. Sponging More Mustard on the largest star really made the image stand out. I did sew around and DP paper and the only thing I would like to change is, I wish I had stitched around the stamped image too. Otherwise, I'm pretty happy. I'd love to hear what you have to say!

Kristina's Color Inspiration #36

For some reason I really struggled with this challenge. It's a natural fit for a Valentine's Day card. I had lots of ideas, but in the end none of them worked out. So, this is what I am left with. I wish I had more time to tinker with it. Hopefully next week I'll allow myself more time to stamp. Now I'm off to check out the other submissions!

Kristina's Color Inspiration #35

I was so happy when it started snowing today and school let out early. Instead of running my weekly errands I got to come home and work on Kristina's Color Inspiration! I thought I was going to use a lot of designer paper. I had pulled out every piece of So Saffron, Baja Breeze, Close To Cocoa and Chocolate Chip I had. Then, I went in a totally different direction when I decided to use the ribbon fraying technique again. Like my card posted on 12/7/08, I used the striped Baja Breeze 5/8" ribbon to make my flower. I love the texture this flower adds and it has a more contemporary feel. I used the Dotted Line wheel with So Saffron ink as a base for the Wonderful Favorites sentiment (love that set!) I crumpled and sponged the Very Vanilla base for more texture. In the end it needed a little something more. That's when I added the small flower on the bottom edge from Priceless. I'm looking forward to more snow days! We have lots of opportunities for snow and ice (yuck) this week. Thanks for stopping by today!

I can finally post this one.

I had to wait to post this card because my good friend, Deb would see it before it arrived in the mail! She and her husband just celebrated their 19th wedding anniversary! Best wishes Deb & Michael! I thought about this layout during the down time at my open house on Sunday, so once I sat down to make it, it went pretty fast. I love the Soft Sky & River Rock combo and I will miss them both. However, the new Baja Breeze is just as yummy! I also used Old Olive Flower Fusion. I really like these little felt flowers and you get a lot of them! I just got the set Wonderful Favorites and I already know I will get lots of mileage out of it! Anyway.....it's late, I'm tired and I need to get up early and go fishing with the kids, hubby and my dad, so off to bed I go! Thanks for checking in with me!