VOILA..........

I just love the chef in the retired stamp set Voila. He is my kind of guy. I had never even mounted this stamp set until it was used by one of my sideline members (Hey, Darlene!!!!)  at our group meeting this past December. Here is her card:

Isn't it adorable???? How could I not CASE it???? I love the red, black and white color combo, but didn't want to copy it exactly. Then I remembered all of the samples I had seen with his clothes paper pieced and I wanted to try that. So what better to use than the retired Cottage Wall DSP. I just love this paper!!! I mounted a piece of Rich Razzleberry on top of my Orchid Opulence base and layered all of my details on top of that. The scarf, hat band and coat cuff are paper pieced with Rich Razzleberry. His shiny buttons are the black rhinestones from the last mini catalog. The cake is colored with my SU! markers. I used the Blush Blossom to give my guy a little skin tone. The sentiment is from the Birthday Bakery set, also from the last mini catalog. I used the Basic Black scallop circle and grosgrain ribbon to finish it up. This is another easy mailer, although I did include a piece of cardstock in the envelope to protect the rhinestones from the post office machines.

I made this card for one of my BFF's birthday. I hope it brought a smile.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ANNETTE!!!!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!!!!

I'M A WINNER --- REALLY I AM........

I guess my stalking --- oops, I mean my following of Mary Fish's blog has finally paid off. (Of course, that is not counting all of the projects I have CASED). She was giving away this cool blog candy:

And all you had to do was leave a comment on her blog (check it out here) telling her your favorite items from the new Stampin' Up Occasions Mini catalog. Easy peasey, right? Here is my comment:

I love the Create a Cupcake stamp set and punch and the Bring on the Cake stamp set. The way to a woman's heart is through stamping cakes???? Thanks for the chance to win "candy" on top of all of that!!!!

So, I guess my personality and wit caught her eye (in reality, my comment was just the randomly picked lucky number). Anyhoo, I wanted to use some of the items as soon as I got them and what better to use them on than a thank you card for the person sweet enough to send all of those goodies to me? I used the awesome Aviary set. And to think this was a set I was not going to get. What was I thinking??? I used a piece of the DSP in the pack Mary sent that was from the Flock Together pack. The colors are Very Vanilla and Tempting Turquoise. Wow, it's been ages since I used Tempting Turquoise. I attached all of the layers (with the image layer raised on dimensionals), added a knotted piece of ribbon and a few of the pearls (from the goodies sent, also) and --- viola, one simple, easy to mail card.

Oh yeah, I also added the "thanks" from the Fabulous Phrases set onto a tab made with the Curly Label punch. Notice the TT layer underneath? This may have been done somewhere before, but I just noticed you could do this. The vanilla layer with the sentiment is the punched paper cut in half on the short side. The TT layer is half cut on the long side of the punch. Make sense? I love how it turned out.

Thanks again to Mary Fish!!!!

And thanks to you for visiting and have a great day!!!!

SIMPLY A CHALLENGE.......

This weekend I needed two birthday cards. This weekend a couple of my friends (Hey, Cindy B. and Debbie W.!!!!) started a monthly sketch/color challenge. Two birds with one stone. The challenge is called the Simply Paper Design Challenge. Check out the link here and play along. But don't stop there --- you really need to "thumb" through Cindy's blog --- it is full of inspiring projects. We also need to encourage Debbie to start a blog --- she is super talented, too. And to top off all of that talent, they are two of the nicest ladies you would ever want to meet.

This first card is using the sketch challenge. I changed it up a tad to work with the image I had --- it didn't look as good shifted down as it does straddling both DSP sections. But sketches are meant to get your creative juices flowing, not necessarily to be followed exactly (although that can be done, too). The DSP is from the current Celebrations pack. The cake is from the retired Voila stamp set and was colored using my Stampin' Up markers. The sentiment is from the current Hostess Level 1 set called Birthday Bakery. The sentiment is raised on Stampin' Dimensionals. Simple card that is an easy mailer.

The next one is using the color challenge - Concord Crush, Certainly Celery, Saraha Sand and Very Vanilla. I CASED this from one on Splitcoast Stampers here. The base is a piece of DSP from the current Lap of Luxury pack mounted on Very Vanilla. The birdie panel (aren't they the cutest little owls???) is mounted on a Sahara Sand base. The birds and the cage are from the current Aviary stamp set. The leaves are punched out with the 2-Step Bird punch from a piece of Certainly Celery.The ring at the top of the cage is a silver eyelet and the Hemp Twine is looped through it and over the top of the panel to "hold" the cage on the tree. The little owlie on the top was stamped, cut out and mounted on a Stampin' Dimensional. The sentiment is from the Hostess Level 3 set Occasional Quotes and is punched out of the Very Vanilla using the Word Window punch. It was then mounted on a Sahara Sand layer punched out with the Modern Label punch, which was used again on the Certainly Celery, cut in half and mounted on each end. Does that make sense? The entire sentiment was raised on Stampin' Dimensionals, too. This one would also be an easy mailer.

So, what do you think? Hopefully, you will play along with the challenge, too. If so, link your creation to Cindy's blog link above. Then, leave me a comment here so I can go over and see what you came up with. Just tell Cindy & Debbie that I sent you and I said "Hey!!!".

A big THANKS to Cindy & Debbie for a great challenge!!! I can't wait for next month's.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!!!!

RUFFLES HAVE RIDGES........

Is that still the saying for the Ruffles brand potato chips? Or am I dating myself again? Anyway, I think this scalloped card looks like ruffles ---- what do you think? The paper is from the retired Sweet Always DSP pack and the only stamping is the sentiment from Well Scripted. It is finished off with some chocolate chip satin ribbon. This was CASED from Andrea Walford here. She is a very talented stamper, so check it out. I really like her big scallops (made with the Tasteful Trim Bigz SL die, which I do not have right now but may have very soon), but I used my Scallop Border Punch. If I could redo it, I think I would arrange the strips differently. This was a quick and easy card, so I will probably CASE it again (& again...).

It was made for my friend Beverly's birthday. She is another very talented stamper --- check her blog out here. I hope she had a great birthday and was pampered all day long!!!!!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!!!!

JUST A LITTLE SLOW..........

Okay, I am a lot slow. I do have the best of intentions, but the worst of memories. And, for some unknown reason, I always seem to forget my nephew's birthday. It's not like it doesn't come the same time every year --- October 6th. I swore this past year was going to be different. And it was --- I was even later than normal getting him his card (I gave him his card at my daughter's birthday party on November 13th). Aaarghhh!!!! I don't know if it is school starting or soccer season getting under way. Whatever, I really need to get much more organized.

I really liked how his card turned out, though. I cased it from the Splitcoast Stampers website here. I used the retired Older & Wiser stamp set. Don't you just love this turtle? The paper is from the current Celebrations DSP pack. Great colors - Pacific Point, Pear Pizzazz, Bashful Blue and Real Red. The Pacific Point ribbon is also retired. You have to keep the guy cards simple, you know.

I am really planning on doing better on having his card completed on time this year, but we shall see.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!!!!!

HAPPY 2011!!!!!

It's a brand spanking new year. Endless possibilities. This could be your best one yet. You just never know.....

I haven't stamped a thing in the new year. I surely hope that is not an indication of the rest of the year. I went to my craft area a couple of times with the best of intentions to clean it up, get it more organized. But I was just too overwhelmed by the enormous task that lay ahead of me that I went back downstairs and read a book on my new Nook (a Christmas gift from my hubby). I have read 3 books total since Christmas day. I think that is more than I have read in all the years since I had my first kid (she's 12 now). Can you say "addiction"?

But I do have a project to show you. This is the birthday card I made for my MIL and was CASED from the very talented Becky Roberts here. It uses the Pun Fun stamp set, which is one of my all time favorites. The DSP is from the retired Summer Picnic and the sentiment is from the retired Riveting stamp set. I used my aquapainter to watercolor my animals and tied it all together with a little bashful blue bow.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day and a very Happy New Year!!!!