Sunflowers

Sunflowers have to be one of my favorite flowers. I love seeing big fields of them with their faces turned towards the sun in the morning. It's a beautiful sight to behold in the late summer, early fall. I decided to use the PTI Simple Sunflower stamps for my entry in the PTI Make It Monday challenge. This weeks challenge is to use your brayer with an impression plate. I used the Book Print impression plate and love the way it turned out. I've tried the brayer with embossed papers before and haven't really been pleased with the results. Since the PTI impression plates deboss, you get a much better and more consistent result when using the brayer technique. There is a video for this technique over at the challenge. Go check it out-

PTI Make It Monday Brayer and Impression Plate Technique

Seeing Stars

The Less Is More challenge is all about stars this week. I use stars a lot when scrapping...not so much when card making. That doesn't mean I don't have plenty of star stamps. The challenge was good motivation to break a couple of PTI sets out and ink them up. Hop on over to Less Is More , get some inspiration, and give it a go!

Typewriter

The challenge this week at CAS-ual Fridays is to create a CAS card using this sketch-

 

I decided to use the typewriter as well as the sketch as my inspiration. I must admit I remember the days before computers when we used manual, then electric typewriters. I also remember what a pain they were for terrible typists like myself. What a chore to change ribbons and use White-Out. lol I wanted the black strip on my card to represent the typewriter ribbon after the text had been typed on the paper. I remember thinking how cool the ribbon looked and how black your fingers got from handling it.

I heat embossed the typewriter and words, used an embossing folder for the background. Fast and easy. I'll have to send this to my mom who types WAY over 100 words per minute. She'll get a kick out of it.

Hop on over to CAS-ual Fridays and play along!

DYSU Challenge 43-Halloween

The challenge at Do You Stack Up?! this week is....Halloween! Use this cool picture to inspire you, then link your project up so we can see what you've created and be entered for a chance to win one of the awesome prizes offered by our sponsors.

This week's Sponsors:

Stitchy Bear Designs $10 Gift Voucher

Sassy Cheryl Designs $5 Gift Certificate

Prairie Fairy Designs
$15 Gift Certificate




For this week's challenge I used this oh so cute Sassy Cheryl's Witch And A Frog digital stamp. They make a cute couple don't you think?

Polka Dots

Who doesn't love polka dots? The challenge over at Less is More is to use polka dots. I used a polka dot embossing plate, and a couple of polka dot background stamps, all from Papertrey Ink. The felt tree came from the Christmas crafts department at Hobby Lobby. I think it is so cute. Yes, I could have made it myself, but... I'm lazy. lol

It's a fun challenge and there are lots of great ideas on how to use polka dots. Hop on over and give it a try.  http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.com/2011/10/week-38.html

Texting

Did you know that "Merry Christmas" was the first message ever texted? I didn't until a couple of months ago. When I did, this Gillian Roberts stamp immediately came to mind. This was another must have stamp for me as a mother of a teenage daughter. I don't know how she functioned without a cell phone for 14 years. Well, 12 years I guess. Before she got her first cell phone, she downloaded a texting app to her Itouch. lol

I made this card for the CAS-ual Fridays challenge "Just Add Color". I used PSE to create the text background paper, then colored, cut and popped up my stamped image. If you're in the mood to do some coloring head on over and join the fun.

Beep Beep!

This morning one of my scrapbooking friends mentioned a Roadrunner cocktail as being her favorite cocktail. I'd never heard of it but I guess it's made with coconut milk, vodka and amaretto, well shaken. I'm not sure I'd ever be willing to give it a try, but it did give me another idea for the cocktail challenge over at Less Is More. I sure did have fun with this week's challenge. Come on over and check it out-drinks without the hangover. Oh, and in honor of my muscle car fanatic husband, I used the Plymouth font for the sentiment in deference to the Plymouth Roadrunner. lol

One, two, TREE!

Welcome once again to a new challenge at Do You Stack Up?!  This week we want to see Trees on your projects! The possibilities are endless for this theme. And what a perfect time of year to be focused on trees! Have fun! I can't wait to see what you are inspired to create.

Here's my tree inspired card. I was able to use this great Tree With Bridge digital image from Hope Jacare. It was so fun to work with.

This week's Sponsors:

Bugaboo Stamps Winner’s Choice of 7 Digis

The Stamping Boutique Winner's Choice of 5 Digis

Hope Jacare
Winner’s Choice of 3 Images

NO Orange Take 2

I really wanted to use this Stitchy Bear digi stamp on my daughter's Halloween card. She loves this kind of fantasy art. I think she will like it since I added some bling to it. lol

Head on over to CAS-ual Fridays and join the challenge.

NO orange!

I really had to think about this one! Create a CAS Halloween project without using orange. That is the challenge over at CAS-ual Fridays this week. I just HAD to have this Penny Black rubber stamp last year. I love it but have the hardest time getting it stamped straight-even with the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig. Just more proof that acrylic stamps were made just for me. lol

You can join the frustration....errr, FUN of creating Halloween cards without orange. Head on over to CAS-ual Fridays.

Manhattan

What a fun challenge over at Less Is More this week. Use the theme "Cocktail". I'm not much of a drinker but an old neighbor of ours was known to have a Manhattan as his evening nightcap. I thought it would be fun to create a cityscape in honor of it. I printed the cityscape from the net twice and cut one to pop up on top of the other. I colored the background with Copics. I'm not sure if the colored background makes this card un-CAS (my own new word-lol), but I'll submit it anyway just to show what I was inspired to create. Head on over and see what you will be inspired to make.

Less Is More-Cocktail challenge

Cancer sucks!

A wonderful friend of ours has lost his 4 year battle with cancer. A strong Christian man, I know he is with the Lord and at peace. His wife and 3 young sons are left with the memories of a great husband and father, but with a big hole in their lives. Love you Jim-we will help your family in any way we can. Rest in peace.

Use Your Scraps!

The challenge at Do You Stack Up this week is to Use Your Scraps!

Oh my, do I have scraps! Container after container of them! As a card maker I should go to those containers more often. I knew the colors in the inspiration picture were colors that I have used often, so I colored my image first and then went to my scrap piles. It didn't take much digging to find a few pieces of paper to use for my card. I need to make a habit of looking through scraps before cutting a new sheet of paper.

I used the darling Caroling with the Birds digital stamp from A Day For Daisies and added the text in PSE before coloring. I just adore this sweet image!

Come on over to Do You Stack Up for some fantastic ideas from the design team on more ways to use your scraps. Then link us up to your creation to be entered for the chance to win a prize from one of our awesome sponsors.

This week's Sponsors:

A Day For Daisies $16 gift certificate

Just Some Lines $15 Gift Certificate

Pink Cat Studios Winner’s Choice of 5 Digis

Hearts

The challenge over at Less Is More this week is a one layer card with hearts. Oh the choices I have for hearts. It's amazing how many stamp sets I have that include a heart in some way. I decided to use this cute Elle's Studio stamp that I've had for quite a while. I have only used it once or twice and thought it needed some inking. Usually these solid image stamps give me fits but for some reason I got lucky on the first try (and no ink smudges either). Yay! Here's a link to the challenge if you'd like to play along-

http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.com/2011/10/week-36.html

Smile!

The challenge at CAS-ual Fridays is to be inspired by the quote "Every day you spend without a smile, is a lost day". This week's theme is in support of "Operation Julie's Smile", a HUGE blog hop to support a friend and colleague in need. Hop on over to their site to get all the details.

CAS-ual Fridays

I used this fun digital image from Create With TLC. How perfect for the theme! I know you vintage/shabby chic card makers could really have some fun with this image.

Thoughts of You

I found some extra time yesterday and decided to try the Papertrey Ink Make It Monday challenge-Custom Stamped Washi Tape. I've been seeing washi tape online for a while but have avoided being sucked in. So I thought this would be fun to try. I used stamps from 3 different PTI sets for my tape. I meant to use GREEN for my leaf strip but had stamped blue before I realized it so my would be Christmas card turned into something else. C'est la vie! The technique was fun and easy and I do like the results.

Here's the link to the challenge if you'd like to learn this technique- Custom Stamped Washi Tape

Do You Stack Up "Brown" Challenge

This week's challenge at Do You Stack Up is to use the color...

Brown

Brown is one of my go to colors. I especially love it combined with green and that was my choice for this challenge. The rounded tops of the mail slots in this amazing photo inspired me to create the same shape for my card. I had the pleasure of using this cool Shabby Chic Couch digital image from Copic marker Scrapbooking to create my card. I think the champagne glasses and vase of flowers make this the perfect image for an anniversary or Valentine's Day card.

Come on over to Do You Stack Up and link us to your brown project for a chance to win one of the awesome prizes offered by this week's sponsors.

This week's Sponsors:

Copic Marker Scrapbooking 6 Copic Ciao Markers (North/South America), Martha Stewart punch (rest of the world)

Crafty Emma £10 Gift Voucher (exc p&p)

Delicious Doodles Winner’s Choice of 4 Digis

Live Laugh Love

The challenge over at Less Is More this week is "The color of your eyes". My eyes are kind of a hazel but leaning more towards brown. So I chose the brown and threw some green in there too. I love this Stamping Bella image-she looks so mischievous! Hop on over and give this challenge a shot.

http://simplylessismoore.blogspot.com/2011/10/week-35.html