MAY SIMPLY PAPER DESIGN CHALLENGE....

Another month, another challenge.......
For May, the team decided to give a fond farewell to the retiring In-Colors - Poppy Parade, Pear Pizzazz, Peach Parfait, Blushing Bride and Concord Crush. Teamed with one of Cindy's awesome sketches --- well, you just can't go wrong. Here is the challenge and Cindy's card can be seen here. Also, check out what Regina came up with here.

For my card, I started with the Just Add Cake DSP. The patterns I chose used the Poppy Parade and Peach Parfait. For a color to compliment those, I used the Pear Pizzazz. The stamp set used is the soon to be retired Not So Seriously. The gift bag was stamped with black StazOn and colored with my Stampin' markers. The sentiment was stamped with the Poppy Parade. I then punched it out with the small tag punch and layered it with peach parfait cardstock punched with the large tag punch. To add a little bling, I attached a piece of white ribbon with a rhinestone brad.

The inside of the card:

I love that sentiment. Luckily, my niece (who was the lucky one to receive this card) has a great sense of humor......

However, this was not my first try on this challenge. I made this card first (sorry for the blurry photo):

It uses the cake from the Voila stamp set, the sentiment from the Whimsical Words stamp set and the center label is from Punch Bunch, all retired. Same DSP and colors used as the other one. I punched the flowers with the Boho Blossoms and added rhinestones in the centers. I really liked this card, but the idea for the other one got into my head (mostly using the tag punch in the center) and I just had to try it, too. So, how about a 2 for 1 deal???

Thanks for checking in..........

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!!!!

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!!!!