THE EASY EASEL...........

I have wanted to try an easel card for a while now and finally took the plunge. Here is a link to the Splitcoast tutorial I used. This was made for one of my son's friends. I used the Lots of Bots stamp set and paired it with the Celebrations DSP. I love this stuff. I may need to hoard several packs before it is retired. The colors and patterns can be used for young and old alike. I will need at least one pack to use in my scrapbooking.

This is the card closed:

Here it is made into the "easel":

Pretty neat, huh? Once I made one, I had to make more. I will be posting them soon.

Thanks for stopping by!!!!

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!!!!

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!!!!!