BIRTHDAY BIRDIE...........

This is a card I made for a friend here at work, although she has since retired (lucky dog!!!). I just adore the Aviary stamp set (and, luckily, it did not retire in the new catalog). To think I was not going to buy it. On this card, I mixed it with the now retired Nursery Nest DSP (it's not just for babies, you know) and the retired Hostess set Swirls and Curls Verses for the sentiment. I blinged it up with a little bow at the top of the cage and  a row of pearls along the bottom of the cage, as well as a couple on either side of the sentiment. Very simple, but eye catching (I think, anyway).

The inside:

Have an awesome day!!!!!

ANOTHER CHALLENGE......

What do you get on a rainy Sunday? Time to stamp!!! YAY!!! I completed several projects this weekend, but can only share one of them right now. This one was done for Cindy and Debbie's Simply Paper Design Challenge #3 for March (check it out here). They are both my sidelines in our Little Debbie's Stampin' Up group, so I naturally asked them if we could use their challenges for our swap this month (I am the hostess with the mostest this time). This card is not my swap, just in case you were wondering. I had this idea, but wasn't all that wowed with it when all was said and done. I look at it now and see at least a couple of things I would do differently.

I love this Aviary set. I cannot believe how much I have used it. And this little owl is my favorite. Isn't he the cutest??? The colors are Tempting Turquoise, So Saffron, Crumb Cake and Early Espresso. I added a little brad at the top of the cage (which is cut out and popped up on dimensionals) and a small knot of Early Espresso ribbon to the cage stand. What would I do different? I would add a layer of Early Espresso behind the owl layer (which is also popped up on, btw) and do something different with the ribbon, although I am not quite sure what. There seems to be too much white space (or in this case, crumb cake space), but I didn't want to junk it up, either. Ah, never 100% satisfied. But I continue stamping.....

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!!!!