Colour Q Challenge #78

Stamps: Fast & Fabulous, En Francais, Hodgepodge Happiness, Nature Walk, Grunge (Kaiser Stamps)
Paper: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, First Edition DSP, Whisper White
Ink: Pink Pirouette, Early Espresso, Certainly Celery
Accessories: Basic Pearls, Seam Binding, Dimensionals®, Scallop Trim Border Punch

These colours from today's Colour Q challenge are right up my alley! Especially as I'm in a wedding theme mode right now :) So, here's another in my series of wedding cards. I think I still prefer the other one I made but I really like this one too. What do you think?

The background paper was stamped first with a collage of stamps from the set called Nature Walk and then I brayered over it with Pink Pirouette. Then, I pierced a line of stitching down, added borders on the side and created my main image. Lots of little steps but realively simple once you get to it :)

Please check out the challenge on the Colour Q blog and see what the Royal Court has come up with this week (links are in my sidebar). Thanks for stopping by my blog, hope you like today's card!

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Inkspirations Challenge #63

Stamps: Fifth Avenue Floral, A Word for You
Paper: Very Vanilla, Watercolour Paper, Old Olive, Pink Pirouette
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Pink Pirouette, Regal Rose, Stazon™
Accessories: Manhattan Floral Embossing Folder, Dimensionals®, Old Olive Satin, Little Leaves Sizzlit, AquaPainter™, Basic Pearls

Good morning! This was a fun sketch to play with and I'm sure you'll find that too, eh?! I have a wedding to go to so I thought I'd get a start on making some wedding cards so that I can pick my fav later to give the happy couple :) So, this is tone on tone with a pop of pink and green. What do you think? Wedding-ish enough?

Please check out the challenge on the Inkspirations blog! The DT have FABULOUS samples as always :) Hope you take the time to play this week with us!

Thanks for visiting :)

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Colour Q Challenge #77

Stamps: Teeny Tiny Wishes, Elements of Style, Easter Blossoms
Paper: Subtles DSP Stack, Bermuda Bay (retired), Bashful Blue, Watercolour Paper
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Concord Crush, Pear Pizzazz, Stazon™
Accessories: Old Olive Satin, Dimensionals®, Curly Label Punch, AquaPainter™, Mat Pack & Piercer

Here's another fun (and challenging) colour combo from the Colour Q! These certainly challenged me ... The inspiration photo is absolutely gorgeous, don't you think?

I dunno what I can tell you about this card ... for some reason or other I'm stumped with what to type today :) The border on either side of the blue strip was created with the Curly Label punch!

Please check out the Royal Courts creations (links are in my sidebar) and check out the challenge on the Colour Q blog! Thanks for poppin' in, have a fab day!!

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Control Freaks March Blog Tour!

Welcome to the March 2011 Control Freaks Blog Tour!! If you've just arrived from Jen's blog, you've come to the right place! If you've started here, you can go completely to the end and arrive back here after going to the beginning of the tour! Just a quick note, if you are viewing this before the 20th, all the links may not be working so be sure to stop back again on the 20th.

This month, the theme is "Something borrowed, Something Blue - Wedding Projects". I have a blue project, all are wedding themed, and one is a favour box!

Stamps: Apple Blossom, Absolutely Fabulous
Paper: Crumb Cake, Not Quite Navy, Elegant Soiree DSP, Confetti White, Baja Breeze
Ink: Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip, Stazon™
Accessories: Dimensionals®, Clear Rhinestone Brads, Baja Breeze Seam Binding, Boho Blossoms Punch

First up is this blue themed card! I was inspired by the most recent Tuesday Trigger challenge and combined it with the layout from Clean and Simple Stamping. It is pretty simple overall, don't you think? It would make a great card to give to a newly engaged couple that is still pretty but not overly feminine. I know LOTS of people that aren't into super frilly floral cards so I figured that this would be a great addition to my stash of cards! The background was created by stamping the smaller backgroundish image from the Apple Blossoms set (I LOVE my stamp a ma jig!).

Stamps: Elements of Style, Occasional Quotes
Paper: Whisper White
Ink: Stazon™, Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, Pear Pizzazz
Accessories: AquaPainter™

Now, this is a really simple card -- one layer! I don't normally make a one layer card but I loved this one so much! I watercoloured these flowers too, believe it or not. Now, you can watercolour on regular cardstock -- you just have to be very very careful and know what you're doing before you do it as you really have limited time once the ink hits the paper. The paper soaks the ink up very quickly. I started with the first hit of colour to where I felt the shading might be and then quickly went over the remainder of the flower. Another reason to work quickly is because your paper will pill (get bumpy, yucky ...). Anywho, isn't this a pretty card?

Stamps: Butterfly Prints, A Word for You
Paper: Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, Confetti White, Whisper White
Ink: Rich Razzleberry, Chocolate Chip, Versa Mark®, Stazon™
Accessories: Matchbox Die, Little Leaves Sizzlit, Butterfly Punch, Basic Pearls, Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder, Dimensionals®

When I think of wedding favours, I think of something relatively quick, relatively inexpensive with wow impact. What do you think of? So, when thinking about all these things, I thought of using the Matchbox die to create a quick and simple little box to place something in -- it could be mints, chocolate, garden seeds, whatever. I added a bunch of detail to the top -- again, fairly quick to reproduce, even in an assembly line :) I still remember making a ton of things for my wedding 12 years ago! The leaf stems were die cut out of Old Olive. When I was cutting the matchbox, I had cut the label shape at the same time out of Confetti White card stock. The butterfly was stamped, covered with versa mark and then heat embossed with Iridescent Ice embossing powder. I glued it on with a dimensional under each wing and then added a few pearls to the centre. Easy peasy!

I hope you enjoyed looking at my projects and are inspired to create something new, fun, and beautiful!!! Your next stop on the Control Freaks tour is Lee Ann! Have fun on the tour :)

Inkspirations Challenge #62

Stamps: Elements of Style, Sanded, Ornate Blossom
Paper: Daffodil Delight, Early Espresso, Watercolour Paper, Subtles Designer Series Paper Stack
Ink: Stazon™, Early Espresso, Regal Rose, Daffodil Delight
Accessories: Dimensionals®, Eyelet Border Punch, Espresso Satin, AquaPainter™

Wow these colours are bright, eh? Or at least they were when I first saw them! I managed to create something a little less bright and ended up loving these colours together! What do you think?

I started out by stamping the Ornate Blossom over the card base and then I stamped the sanded background stamp over top to kind of tone down the brightness of the yellow. I stamped the same background image over the patterned paper as well. I'm slowly working my way through the DSP stack. Have you ordered one of those paper stacks from SU? This is my first one and I have to say that it's a ton of paper :)

Anywho, the main image was watercoloured with the Regal Rose and Early Espresso inks and I popped a ribbon behind it for some fun (and 'cause I can't seem to make a card without ribbon ...!).

Please check out the challenge on the Inkspirations blog and see what the rest of the team created with these colours! I'd love to see what you create so link yours up too :)

Thanks for poppin in, have a great day!

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Colour Q Challenge #76

Stamps: Medallion, Punch Bunch, Something to Celebrate
Paper: Early Espresso, Old Olive, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White, Subtles DSP Stack, Certainly Celery
Ink: Early Espresso, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive
Accessories: Scallop Circle Punch, 2-Step Bird Punch, Dimensionals®, Scallop Trim Border Punch, Scallop Border Punch, Boho Blossoms Punch, Circle Brads, Crystal Effects®, Early Espresso Satin

I'm finally getting back into my groove! It has taken me a looooooooong time to get back into what I would call a comfortable rhythm of stamping and life. I like working a head, rather than hoping to get something done on time :)

Anyway, all that was to say that I got this one done with loads of time to spare and I'm saving it for a class later! I didn't have any Kiwi Kiss left (although I really do miss that colour), so I substituted Certainly Celery in it's place.

Hope you like my card and are inspired to create something fun for the Colour Q challenge! Have a great day :)

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March Creative Crew Challenges - Holiday/Seasonal Focus

Stamps: Greeting Card Kids

Paper: Chocolate Chip, Stazon™, So Saffron, Poppy Parade, Blush Blossom
Ink: Sweet Stitches DSP, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White
Accessories: Top Note Die, Pom Pom Trim

Holiday/Seasonal Focus Challenge
(keywords: CCREW0311HF, CreativeCrew, SUO or SUM)

International Earth Day was initiated to make us aware of our responsibility to care for our planet. This care includes environmental and natural resources. Stampin' Up! comes up with some WOW packaging and designs in the catalog, so this month we're going to Re-Use, Re-Cycle, Re-Package, and Alter, there is no right or wrong here, just have fun with it!

Here's another installment of the Creative Crew challenges! I made this one for the "Reuse, Recycle, Repackage" challenge. I'd had this wooden box from a dollar store for a long time in y stash and I'd always meant to transform it somehow, I just didn't know what for. Well, I figured out what I needed when I was rearranging another crafting love of mine - cross stitching! I cross stitch a baby name/weight/birth-date wall hanging for each of my children and I'm currently working on one for Maria, you can see which one on the left! She's our third child, meaning that there are two more to make after this one!. I don't cross stitch often, once a week at a friends house (thanks Trisha!). Anyway, I thought this box would be perfect to store the thread I'm using for the project. That way, I don't mess up my other thread and I'm not constantly searching through something I don't need the majority of!

I kept it pretty simple. I was short on time for one thing ... and I really didn't want to have a whole lot of doodads on it as it's getting put in and out of a bag once a week. The inside was really simple to make -- just a bunch of folds to create dividers for the DMC floss.

Hope you enjoyed looking at this project and are inspired to create something useful out of anything you have just waiting to be prettied up! Have a great day :)

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Inkspirations Challenge #61

Stamps: Elements of Style, Something to Celebrate, En Francais
Paper: Crumb Cake, Pink Pirouette, Very Vanilla
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake, Pink Pirouette, Certainly Celery
Accessories: Eyelet Border Punch, Scallop Circle Punch, Jumbo Brads, Espresso Satin, Dimensionals®, Color Spritzer Tool

This sketch from Inkspirations was really fun! The circular element was interesting to add ... :) I love this stamp set and so it was easy to work with. I stamped it with chocolate ink and then coloured it in with markers. The markers sort of made the chocolate ink bleed which was an effect that I really quite liked (I expected it). The pink layer underneath was stamped, punched, crumpled, and inked!

Anywho, I'm short on time at the moment, but if you have questions, please feel free to contact me!

I hope you have fun with this sketch! Please check out what the rest of the Inkspirations team has cooked up for you tday and p,ay along with us?!

Have a great day!

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Colour Q Challenge #75

Stamps: Make A Monster, Family Phrases
Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black, Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie, Tempting Turquoise
Ink: Tempting Turquoise, Stazon™
Accessories: Texturz Plates, Square Lattice Embossing Folder, Owl Punch, Dimensionals®, Library Clip, Spiral Punch

Fun colours from Arielle today! Those cookies in the inspiration photo are absolutely darling, eh? I wish I had the patience to ice cookies like that ... never gonna happen :) Either way, they inspired me to make some punch art! I'm going to be holding a class in a couple weeks featuring the owl punch and the various ways to create different shapes with it. None of these idea's are unique to me, I've seen them floating around on the web. The only thing unique would be my card!

In other news, I also received the Stylish Blogger Award once more from Fanny Trépanier. She called me a "card queen"! Wow, totally honoured by that comment and humbled all at the same time. I certainly don't think of myself that way :) Thanks Fanny!

I hope you like this card! Please check out the Royal Court's creations on the Colour Q blog! Have a great day :)

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March Creative Crew Challenges - Colour Focus

Stamps: Inspired by Nature, Absolutely Fabulous
Paper: VersaMark, Chocolate Chip, Garden Green, Crumb Cake
Ink: Crumb Cake, Wild Wasabi, Chocolate Chip, First Edition DSP
Accessories: Crumb Cake Seam Binding, Dimensionals®, Clear Embossing Powder

Colour Focus Challenge
(keywords: CCREW03111DF, CreativeCrew, SUO or SUM)

Sticking with the Green theme, use the Woodland Walk DSP or this colour combination: Garden Green, Wild Wasabi, Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, & Chocolate Chip

For this month's Creative Crew colour focus, I chose to use the colour combination instead of the patterned paper. I didn't have the patterned paper and wasn't planning on ordering it right now! Love it, just have to use what I have first :)

I can't say that I'd ever use those two greens together but I must say, I'm pleased with how it turned out. I was inspired by a project that fellow Inkspirations teammate had made - Cindy Major. She had made this beautiful card with Inspired by Nature. I loved how she has stamped on the First Edition DSP and then sponged over the flowers.

The rest of the card flowed from that! I did heat dry the ribbon by using my heat gun to allow the ribbon to crinkle. This technique works great on the seam binding, taffeta, and organdy! Just be very careful or it will shrivel too fast and burn ... trust me, I've done it :)

I hope you like this card and that you check out my muse for this card! If you play in the challenge, let me know!

Have a great day!!!

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Inkspirations Challenge #60

Stamps: Punch Bunch
Paper: Whisper White, Subtles Designer Series Paper Stack, So Saffron
Ink: Rose Red, So Saffron, Basic Black, Versa Mark™
Accessories: Scallop Trim Border Punch, Grosgrain (retired), Sweet Buttons Embosslit, Basic Pearls, Dimensionals®, Large Tag Punch, Crystal Effects, Linen Thread

Love these colours together, don't you? Keesh has chosen a great combo for today's Inkspirations challenge! I realised later that I used celery ribbon instead of using Wasabi though ... I kind of view celery as a lighter form of Wasabi though :)

I haven't used this image from this set yet and I'm on a bit of a baby kick right now (no, no more children for us) so this was fun! I had inked up the image with markers and the once the card was completed, I added Crystal Effects over the mobile.

Hope you like my card?! Please check out the rest of the Inkspirations teams' projects on the Inkspirations blog! Have a great day!!

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March Creative Crew Challenges

Creative Crew Challenges for March!

This month is all about going green. The Creative Crew challenges include recycling, the colour green, and more. Please check out the challenges and upload your projects using the correct keywords on SplitCoast Stampers! Keywords are VERY important as these challenges are generally found by the keywords :) It is preferable to use mostly Stampin' Up! products but it is not required to use ONLY Stampin' Up! materials. Images should be SU. Here are your challenges for this month!

Catalog Focus Challenge (keywords: CCREW0311CF, CreativeCrew, SUO or SUM)

This month along with being green let's celebrate "Growing Up" get your catalog out turn to the "Growing Up" section - pages 77 - 96 use a set from this section. If you do not have any sets from this section, make something that would delight a child.

Colour Focus Challenge (keywords: CCREW03111DF, CreativeCrew, SUO or SUM)

Sticking with the Green theme, use the Woodland Walk DSP or this colour combination: Garden Green, Wild Wasabi, Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, & Chocolate Chip

Holiday/Seasonal Focus Challenge (keywords: CCREW0311HF, CreativeCrew, SUO or SUM)

International Earth Day was initiated to make us aware of our responsibility to care for our planet. This care includes environmental and natural resources. Stampin' Up! comes up with some WOW packaging and designs in the catalog, so this month we're going to Re-Use, Re-Cycle, Re-Package, and Alter, there is no right or wrong here, just have fun with it!

Scrapbooking Inspiration Challenge (keywords: CCREW0311SF, CreativeCrew, SUO or SUM)

Are you up for a real challenge this month? Your SB focus is about YOU! Whether you work inside or outside the home, you work! So let the spouse, or the kids, or the parents, or heck even the neighbor have your camera and do a photo shoot with you as subject! Then design a page, a gift scrapbook, or a keepsake about you - your likes, dislikes, beliefs, silliness, what makes you, YOU, etc.

I can't wait to see your projects! Please leave a link to your projects in the comment section on this post so I can see them :) Have FUN!

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Colour Q Challenge #74

Stamps: Make A Monster, Crazy for Cupcakes, A to Z, Dot Dot Dot
Paper: Crumb Cake, Tangerine Tango, Pear Pizzazz, Early Espresso, Watercolour Paper
Ink: Stazon™, Whisper White, Marina Mist, Early Espresso
Accessories: White Embossing Powder, Dimensionals®, Espresso Satin, AquaPainter™, Linen Thread

It's time for a new Colour Q Challenge! This combo was really fun and I ended up making a little boy birthday card. Handy, my son's third birthday was earlier this week and although this will be a touch late ... he'll still like it!

Please check out the challenge on the Colour Q blog and see what you come up with!

Thanks for visiting :)

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