Throwdown {my} Shabby Chair......

Have I got you scratching your head with my post title?  LOL...here's the deal, there are three amazing challenges out there that I am DETERMINED to participate in this week and two of them are set to close tomorrow.  The third I have a lofty goal to make more than one project for and, like so many of you out there reading this, I am short on creative time lately.  Thus, I present you with my three-fer for the Color Throwdown Challenge #90, the Shabby Tea Room "comforts of home challenge", and the Three Cheers for Chairs Challenge in the Moxie Fab World.  Whew!

*sigh* oh do I love a cushy chair with pretty surroundings plus a good book.  This is one way I refresh and take little me moments whenever I can.  I would love a hideaway as gloriously girlie as the one above.  So far I haven't scored a vintage chair as pretty as the one above from the Graphics Fairy blog but I do have a color palette in my house that is very similiar to the throwdown colors this week.....especially in the celery color department.

I still love this set from Stampin Up called Handbill Headlines...hmmm, based on the last couple of posts, I must be having another honeymoon with some of my faves from SU! despite their earlier retirement.  I paired this juicy Refresh stamp with the sleek swirls from Papertrey Ink's Fancy Flourishes and a chandy stamp from Studio G that has been patiently waiting it's turn to be stamped.  Tiny bling from Want 2 Scrap accents the lamp shades and the center of the "F" on refresh.  Let's see, what else?  Oh!  That length of lace was a major score during a local thrifting session!  It is oh so pretty!

Thanks so much for stopping by.  I hope you can also throwdown your shabby chair and REFRESH soon!  And for all you mommies out there, I hope you get to do whatever refreshes and renews your heart and soul next sunday, May 9th, Mother's Day here in the states.

***if you are looking for my Just Us Girls sketch challenge card, please see the post below***

Supplies:

Digi: the graphics fairy blog

Stamps: Stampin Up, Papertrey, Studio G

Ink: Stampin Up

Paper: Stampin Up and Georgis Pacific

Chipboard: Tattered Angels

Buttons: Papertrey Ink

Bling: Want 2 Scrap

Punch: Martha Stewert

Embosser: Cuttlebug

Craft Supply: embroidery thread, lace, ribbon

Just Us Girls #21 color challenge.....Thank {you}

Hello friends!  It's saturday and time for another challenge with Just Us Girls.  This week is a color challenge by the amazing Maria!

Ivory, chocolate, coral and just a dash of raspberry!  Yum!  Sounds like dessert!

I started by finding the piece of basic grey and then backed it with the melon berry grid paper from Papertrey Ink.  I *made* the flower  using my CRICUT and SCAL!  Oh boy!  I am soooooo hooked on my Cricut now because of this software.  Forget the fact that I bought WAY too many cricut cartridges several years ago.  The fact that I can use SCAL to create and cut basically any image I can find is amazing!  I found a daisy silhouette online and cut two of the eight petal flowers above, embossed them with a damask folder and inked to enhance the embossed pattern.  The rest of the card came together with a repurposed tag I had in my basket o' findings on my desk, some lace and chipboard letters.

OK, just one more shot of my daisy.  I'm am just tickled I was able to make my computer talk to my cricut and cut it out without a major learning curve.  Oh the possibilities for creativity.  Speaking of creativity, check out the rest of the JUGs this week for more inspired color challenge cards!

Iwona Palamountain, Guest Designer

Kristin Bueter

Pam Imholz

Maria Levine

Tracey Cuccia

Lisa Kind

Mona Pendleton

Alicia Weiman

OK friends, let's get creative!  Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies:

Paper: Basic Grey, Papertrey Ink, Georgia Pacific

Ink: Papertrey Ink and Stampin Up

Stamps: Papertrey Ink

Punch: Fiskars and Stampin Up

Embosser: Cuttlebug

Chipboard Alpha: Heidi Swapp

Craft Supply: lace, button, embroidery floss, ribbon, office tag

PTI Blog Hop {fall challenge} and Card Patterns #29

Hey friends! Just got done cleaning up a fabulous dinner for my sweetie's birthday. Whew doggies! It was sooo yummy...even yummier because my sweet MIL made it! :) I sat down to take a little blog break and realized I missed the blog hop window for Papertrey. Oh well, there was still plenty of inspiration so I figured, what the heck? and made a card!


I decided to gather additional inspiration from this card sketch from Card Patterns #29:

the sketch:

my card:

I rotated the sketch 90 degrees to the left and then went to town with some luscious fall ribbon, a vintage button, twine, gems and a couple of my favorite Papertrey products: bitty dot paper, Damask Designs and Fancy Flourish stamps.

Check out the :BLING: bLiNg Bling! I just love these golden craft gems. It reminds me of when the sun glints off of the leaves when they turn all of those golden-orange colors. OOOOooh I can't wait for fall to get here with the gorgeous bright blue days, crisp morning air and, best of all, cozy clothing and a fire or two in the woodstove. Bring on the fall!

Thanks for hopping by. I really appreciate that you share you day with me!

Supplies:
Paper: Papertrey Ink and Georgia Pacific
Stamps: Damask Designs and Fancy Flourish by Papertrey
Ink: SU!
Craft Supplies: gems, vintage button, hemp twine and ribbon

SPCC #10 and CPS#128....{Hello}

Hello! A little card for the Scrapmaster's Paradise color challenge #10 and CPS#128 sketch. I'm heading out the door for the weekend but squeezed in some creative time today before I start packing.

the challenges:

my project:

I pulled out some old school quilling supplies (!) to make these flowers. Old school meaning it's been a long time since I've seen them. Woohoo! I love when what's old in my stash is new again :)

The basic idea is to set up pins in a wax paper covered cork board and winde the scrapper's floss around the pins to get your desired shape. The final step is to thread on the button center and secure the whole deal with a blob of Fabri-tac hidden under the button.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day and weekend!

Come on and take a {thrill} ride..

Tuesday already?? Wow! Where did that come from? Sometimes the days just fly by and in the wise words of Ferris Bueller, Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. So here to share a card today that actually is more of a scrapbook page in miniature, capturing one of my most treasured experiences captured on film as of late...

These people right here are so special to me! You've got my two home-girls up front who never stopped laughing and squealing during the WHOLE 45 minute ride session. The master of all things motorized, fun, and thrill, my one and only bigger than me "little brother" at the wheel and riding shotgun on the most uncomfortable metal bar rack (ouch!) is my sweet SIL , Traci! Yep, she's as cool and fun in real life as she seems on her blog :) My girls just love spending time with their "Zio and Zia" and this little card was to thank them for some crazy cool fun the other night.

Almost all of the elements on this card are from Mari Koegelenberg's August Grab Bag at the digichick boutique. The cool background prints, the bingo card, the vintage ticket, the graph paper circle with the metal star.....LOVE it all! Very cool, too, that the bingo card had the number 4 at the top available for me to highlight with a simple punched circle ring with bling!

Thanks so much for dropping by. I hope your day is filled with as much laughter and joy as you see on these faces!

Supplies:

Digi Kit: Mari Koegelenberg

Paper: Georgia Pacific

Font: Typewriter

Program: Microsoft Word

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Fancy Flourish

Punches: SU and CM

Ink: colorbox

Other: twine, bling, metal tag and heart shaped brad.

Card Patterns Sketch 26 and KWerner Color Inspiration

Whew! It's a two-fer! I haven't done that in a long time! WEll it just so happens there were tons of great challenges I wanted to do this week and hubs is out in the wilderness tonight so I am just cranking out crafty, I figured, why not? Dishes can wait. LOL! So this card came together using the colors from Kristina Werner and the sketch from Card Patterns. I ended up with some fun results.
OK, so these aren't really baby card colors but I think I made it work anyway? The vintage-y lace edge on the sketch and many other elements in the sketch meant I had room for the SIX colors in Kristina's challenge. I also had this awesome 3-D star template from Kelleigh Ratlaff (she's linked on my side bar) that I wanted to try out. My plan was to use half of the template and make a 3-D element on a card...it worked! I will SO do this again!

Check that star out! Some ink really set off the raised and recessed edges and the embossed and glittered swirls using a Papertrey stamp set (Fancy Flourishes) really give this card some tactile qualities. Adding some celery ink to the celery cardstock also added a vintage-y depth to the background and, of course, good ol swiss dots to the rescue.

OK, I think I am done posting tonight. Sorry for the onslaught of posts today but I had *deadlines*! LOL These challenges were the perfect fun for the end of a challenging but satisfying week. Y'all know what I mean, sometimes you just gotta say, "what the craft" and make something just for the joy of it. Thanks for visiting!

Raspberry Suite Challenge #11 ... {enjoy Life}

Greetings everyone! A card for consideration in Dawn McVey's Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #11. Crafty Dawn is known for her unique color combos and this week is QUITE a challenge with 5 colors and no white or cream neutral! Well, she did edit to add and say you could use it if needed but I managed to avoid it except for a *tiny* bit on one of my papers and on my ribbon. I use white a lot so I challenged myself not to this time :)

the challenge:

my project:

I have to say, I am quite excited with how the bright colors pop against the gray background! This was such a fun challenge and I will definitely use this again!
Now of course I can't have butterflies who don't "fly" so a side shot to illustrate their 3 dimensionality. Also, something I haven't done in a while, I stamped the black with pigment ink. I usually avoid that stuff like the plague since it tends to smear with my impatience BUT it was a great creamy black on this gray cardstock from Bazzill.

I'm so glad you stopped by today! I hope you take a moment today to just "enjoy life"...ciao!

Supplies:

Cardstock: Papertrey (raspberry fizz and pure poppy) and Bazzill (black and gray)

Printed paper: CM (green with swiss dots)

Stamps: Fancy Flourish and Star Prints from Papertrey Ink

Ink: black pigment by Colorbox

Dies: Sizzix

Punches: Martha Stewert (small butterflies)
Other: craft gems and ribbon (target $1)

My Time Sketch #33.....{Sweet} Star

Happy Saturday My Time challengers! It's time for a SKETCH challenge from the fabulous Lauren Meader and her My Time To Create Design Team! I just love saturdays :) Today I am bringing you a sweet little star card for a very precious little person. I used the very cute and ever versatile Star Prints and Fancy Flourish sets from Papertrey Ink and Lauren's sketch below to inspire the elements on this card.

the sketch:

my project:

I followed the orientation of the sketch as it is presented and broke up the "neatness" of it all by replacing the horizontal band of the darkest turquoise in the sketch with the swirly flourish from this wonderful set. I stamped the largest of the flourishes with So Saffron from SU! on cream cardstock. I then hand glittered the design with yellow stickles. After it dried, I detail cut *carefully* around the swirls and swoops, using about half of the overall design. I thought the swirls were a wonderful compliment to the star.

The yellow stickles were also a near perfect match with the yellow glitter on the patterned paper so this was a great way to bring products from different manufacturers together. Click the photo to get a closer look at the glitter and also, the pop of white embossing powder on the star.

Since this card is to go right out in the mail and I had two tiny strips of patterned paper left by my cutter, I decided to apply them to the outside of the envelope immediately so I could give them a good home. These little pieces are so tempting to *keep* and I have and do refile them into my scraps storage file system....but it is so much more useful and gratifying to use them up! Notice I never suggested tossing them! I just can't do it!!! SO I am glad I have rescued them from re-file process and saved myself the trouble of tiny clutter. :)

So, now it's YOUR turn. I can't wait to see what you make with the sketch today. For a ton more inspiration, please visit the design team to see what they have been up to.

Lauren
Alicia
Dawn
MacKenzie
Maria
Kendra
Kristen
Tracey
Pam
Jennifer
Odette
Lisa
Tamara

When you have finished your creation, please add it to the Mr Linky on Lauren's post for today so we can all see what you made with your time! Thanks so much for stopping by and have a goodie, friends!

Supplies:

Cardstock: Papertrey Ink and Staples

Paper: DCWV Nursery baby girl (stripes) and unknown (bitty hearts)

Stamps: Papertrey Ink

Embossing: Cuttelbug swiss dots

Ink: Stampin Up!

Punch : Fiskars squeeze punch (fits the whoel PTI star set perfectly)

Other: tiny brads. corner rounder, foam pop dots, Stickles, makeup sponge for inking