OCC 04/25/09 Merci!

While looking at the color challenge SCS has this week, I came across a challenge that OCC is having this week,too, and remembered a card made quite a while ago, but never posted because it was made so that I could use new markers and new Poppy Patch stamps from Flourishes :-D I fell in love with these stamps the first time I saw them posted on a blog (can't remember how many of them) and made a promise to buy a set asap. Found them here in Northern Virginia at the nearest LSS and have never regretted the purchase. The challenge over at OCC is to use your favorite colors to create a project; there are prizes to win, if you're up to it. My favorite colors are red, black, and white, but really enjoy using yellow to give myself a bright color fix :-D

The flowers were colored with Prismacolor markers. I tried the outside the box technique to make the larger poppy stand out while stamping the smaller one twice, cutting one and adhering it with a pop dot on top of the first image. I wanted to give the card some French flair, so the SU! French Script stamp was used on the yellow cs and a swirly CB die was used as a background for the main image.

Merci for stopping by and taking a look.

Stamps: Poppy Patch (Flourishes)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento), distress Scattered Straw and Tea Dye (Ranger)
Paper: French Market (7Gypsies), yellow (maybe SU!)?, Select White (PTI), black (unknown source)
Accessories: Pure Poppy ribbon (PTI), ribbon tag trio set (Spellbinders), Prismacolor markers, computer generated sentiment, CB die, circle punch

Mojo Monday 84 Be Happy!

It's spring time in Virginia! Although it's rained off and on this afternoon, sweet hubs and I enjoyed a nice time walking through Old Alexandria yesterday enjoying the sunshine and cooler air of spring. Getting to play MojoMonday is becoming a fun habit and today I decided to do something totally different than norm: use more subtle colors :-D It didn't feel comfortable, but it's good to try something outside the comfort zone. I'm not a lacy type of gal, but wanted to use some lace that was bought quite some time ago and couldn't decide where it would look best. Am not even sure that it works here, but it's where it landed :-D The beautiful butterfly image is another one sent by Mita; she spoiled me rotten on numerous occasions with some delightful images, embellies, and paper from Sweden.

The main image was colored with Copic markers and sponged with Ranger distress inks (Scattered Straw, Tea Dye, and Fired Brick). The sentiment is a rub on (Pretty Poppies) and sponged using the same colors as the main image. Paper punches were used for the sentiment and photo corners. A much neglected photo corner from SU! was added as well as lace on the main image. A border punch was used on the main image, too. A smaller butterfly was colored with Copics, cut out, and adhered on a pop dot overlapping the main image. The paper is from an old paper pad stash that hasn't seen the light of day in a long time. Guess I felt like using supplies that sit too far in the back of current stuff :-D All cardstock is from Papertrey Ink.

Thanks so much for taking a look today!

Gigi

CPS113 Dance as if no one were watching....

Feel like dancing? It seems as if years have passed since my feet last saw a dance floor; maybe sweet hubs and I can find a place to "kick up our heels" nearby :-D This card was made using the CPS113 weekly sketch, which is being sponsored by Cornish Heritage Farms stamp company. I don't own any of the stamps, but think it's fine using what's in my craft room until I can buy some; they have some great products to sell. As many of the regular blog visitors know, red, black, and white are three of my fav colors and here they are, again :-D I think the dp, purchased at the Paper Source store, takes the high heel up a notch, making it look as if it's already in a ballroom. Have I been watching too much Dancing with the Stars lately??? :-D The corner embellies were embossed, punched, and cut in quarters; think it adds a little more flavor to the dance theme. Seriously, doesn't this shoe make you want to dance?!!!

Cease the day doing something fun!
Gigi

Materials:
Stamps: High Heels (Hero Arts)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Paper: Select White, Pure Poppy, True Black (Papertrey Ink), DP (Paper Source)
Accessories: Rhinestones from Mike's, rub on, paper punches (SU!), CB ef, ribbon from stash, Copic markers (Scrap-Mart),

"Shoe" Me the Purse KWernerdesign CC #50

KWernerDesign blog is hosting her #50 color challenge this week and I decided to go ahead and try my luck at winning a fabulous prize Kristina is offering in celebration. Her color choices are red, brown, yellow, white, and turquoise. I've looked at several submissions on her blog and there are some amazing creative people turning in some beautiful work. I wanted to play, too, so pulled out a stamp set (Fashion 455) recently won from Rubbernecker.

Thought the shoes would look interesting in different colors since many of us find a pair of shoes that fit perfectly and look cute, and "need" a pair in every color the store has to sell :-D The sentiment idea popped up while thinking of what kind of card to make and since it made my hubby laugh out loud, went with it, "Shoe Me the Purse." Enjoy wearing a comfy pair of shoes today and if you're out and about, "shoe the purse" too!

Thanks for stopping by and hope you have time to play the color challenge,
Gigi

Supplies:

Stamps: Rubbernecker

Paper: Textured cardstock, Select White (PTI)

Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)

Accessories: Nesties, Copic markers, computer

Ronay's Card

While Ronay was visiting this week, I asked her to choose whatever paper and embellishments she wanted me to use for making her a card. Ronay doesn't card craft, but she is one of my biggest supporters and encourages often. Making her a card gave me an opportunity to use new Copic markers from Papertrey Ink, flowers from a stash that weren't getting used, brads that aren't used often, paper given as a gift from Mita, and a beautiful felt butterfly that was also a gift from Mita. A new corner punch from EK was used as well as a new fence punch from MS. Ronay took her gift back home with a big smile on her face (I should have colored Tilda's hair dark brown like Ronay's :-D Oops, guess that gives me another chance to color a Tilda with dark brown hair :-D

Thanks for visiting my blog; hope you return soon!

Gigi

SC225 Hey, Cupcake!

The card was made using another new rubber stamp featuring Tilda; isn't she adorable-looking holding that yummy cupcake? Copic markers were used for coloring the image. The sentiment is computer generated and die cut with Spellbinders tag trio set. Papertrey Ink ribbon was added to the tag. Die cuts from Spellbinders were used for the ovals, squares and rectangles. Miscellaneous buttons from a stash were adhered to the card; buttons seem to be one of the hot trends in card crafting lately.

Thanks for looking; hope you have a cupcake kind of day!
Gigi

I {Heart} 2Stamp Sketch 042509...You Inspire Me

I played the weekly I {Heart}2Stamp Sketch today and it was fun trying to think of what could be used, so a paper pad, Pretty Poppies, that doesn't seem to have much love given to it was die cut and embossed. Some new dies from Spellbinders were used for the flowers that were layered. The red and white cs are from Papertrey Ink. White ribbon from the stash was added to the flowers. A rub on was cut with SU! large oval punch. A button and rhinestone topped off the flower.

Thanks for visiting today!
Gigi

Welcome, Baby

There's a new addition to the family; her name is Harper Bach! She belongs to one of my grandsons, who lives in Houston, TX. During my daughter's visit this past week, very little time was alloted for card making, but I managed to knock this one out in no time while Ronay was napping for a few minutes. I found a really cute little dress for the baby while out and about; the colors and the polka dots were the inspiration for this card (now I wish that a picture had been taken of the dress :-( Oh well, believe me when I say it's really cute :-D My daughter left early this morning and I'm already missing her..sob sob :-( We had a great time together this week and got to do a lot in 7 days. We took a trip to NYC and were able to fit in two musicals on Broadway, Momma Mia being our favorite. If you ever take a trip to NYC and don't have a lot of time for sight seeing, Ronay and I highly recommend the GrayLine tour bus. I've visited NYC several times, but still saw a lot that I was missed during those trips.

Time to get on to some sketch challenges I worked on today, so will close for now and thank you for stopping by and taking a peek.

Mojo Monday 82, Just Smile!

A few months ago, I discovered Claudia Rosa's blog, Pretty Pressings. She uses alot of Magnolia stamps, especially the Tilda images. Her work is beautiful, regardless of what image she uses, so it's well worth visiting her blog, if you have time. My friend, Mita, likes Tilda, too; she was sweet enough to send several stamped images of Tilda and a couple of Edwins from Sweden. I got hooked and ordered a few Tildas myself from Magnolia-licious; they're absolutely adorable! Since my daughter is arriving from Texas tomorrow afternoon, there isn't much time for card crafting while she's here, so I worked hard last night to get at least one Mojo Monday challenge card done before heading to bed :-D

Thanks so much for taking time to stop and visiting today.

Hope you enjoy one fabulous weekend!

Gigi

Stamps: Tilda with straw hat (Magnolia-licious)
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Ranger Scattered Straw and Tea Dye (Rubbernecker Stamp Co.)
Paper: Stampers Select White, Pure Poppy (PTI), Fluttered By (Imaginence)
Accessories: Ghost flower, white flower, button, floss, gingham ribbon, CB ef, Nesties, MS scallop border punch, Copic and Prismacolor markers, rub ons, Shimmerz

This Blog Rocks Award

This is a first ever blog award given to me. My treasured friend, from Sweden gave it. Thank you, Mita; you're the best! I would like to pass this award to Sherry Cheever for her inspiration (card crafting) and great sense of humor that keeps me smiling while reading her blog. I also want to thank the ladies who take time to read this blog and leave such sweet comments, such as Terri E. and Denise from Hawaii; they should have this blog award, too and of course it should go to Mita because this lady really ROCKS!!!!!

Gigi

CCEEC CC214 Challenge Tilda with Flower

One of the blogs that is visited on a regular basis is called Stamp Talk with Tosh This young woman has so much talent and I'm so envious of her creative ideas she uses on her cards; they're absolutely stunning! While checking out the blog yesterday, I found that her group, CCEE, has started a weekly challenge (hope I read that right :-D and since Mita sent an enormous stack of inked images all the way from Sweden, which included some adorable Tilda ones, this is a perfect opportunity to play the challenge, which asks for girl images and using scraps (those are plentiful around this place :-D I had the die cut and the image adhered to it before looking at Cindy Motherway's card and notice that she and I had the same idea using our Labels One Spellbinders dies :-D The inside of the card was made because of a boo boo; glued the "gates" when they were suppose to have a magnet closing them; have you ever goofed up like that? :-D If you have a girl image and want to share a project, just scoot on over to CCEE and check out the deets. The colors on the card should quality for the SCS color challenge, CC214. Thanks for stopping by and visiting the blog; you inspire me to continue with something that I enjoy doing over and over :-D

Gigi

Supplies:

Stamps: Stamped Tilda image from Mita

Ink: None

Paper: Urban Prairie scraps (Basic Grey), True Black, Stampers Select White (PTI), coral and turquoise texture scraps from stash

Extra Fun Stuff: Buttons (antique store in northern Virginia), floss, rick rack, Copic and Prismacolor markers, black pen, CB ef, magnets (Basic Grey), Labels One dies (Spellbinders)

Thank you, Mita!

Took a nice long walk today to clear the mind, exercise the body, and feel some fresh air on my face and am so glad that I did! When I got back home, went to the mail box and found a wonderful gift package waiting to get opened from Sweden. My kind and generous friend, Mita Ericksson, sent another package containing more fabulous gems: An Alota stamp I've been desiring, a butterfly stamp, another stamp to use as a signature, great stamped images, and last, but not least, a necklace with my name. You know how God puts friends into your life for a reason? Well, Mita and I became friends through our blogs and I am so thankful for her friendship. Since moving to Virginia from Texas, friends have been hard to come by; the people here are friendly enough, but it seems as if time and other commitments keep me from bonding with many. I'm so thankful for the part time job that keeps me busy because it takes my mind off a lot of negative thoughts, such as not having my best friends here to enjoy, or not getting to see my children and grandchildren as often as I would like. I feel blessed to have Mita in my life; she has really given me a spiritual lift and is so much fun to know. She speaks Swedish and I speak English, but she knows much more English words than I know Swedish :-D I've learned a couple of words, such as Kram, but nothing compared to what Mita can write in her messages. I wish every person, who sometimes feels a little down, had a friend like Mita to make their day that much nicer. My wish is that I become the friend to her and others as she has been to me. She'll never know the extent of how much her messages, gifts, and friendship have meant.

The card is made with one of the images Mita inked up and mailed across the ocean :-D I just love this image! "Tilda" was colored with Copic and Prismacolor markers. The sentiment is a rub on from Autumn Leaves Pretty Poppies, which was sponged with Scattered Straw and Tea Dye around the edges. The flowers are Primas. The Polka Dot frame (Spellbinders) was cut, embossed and sponged (PTI Fresh Snow). Squiggles were added to give the image some added dimension. Pure Poppy (PTI) was embossed with the Swiss Dots ef. Paper for the frame is True Black (PTI) and the card base is Select White (PTI.) A red rhinestone from Mike's was adhered to the center of the flower.

Hope you're inspired by this card and will create one for a good friend who makes you feel special and leaves happy thoughts in your head, I did!

Gigi

WSC76 Challenge Ambrosia Butterfly

This morning, during a routine blog hop, I found another challenge to play; it was found on Laurie Schmidlin's blog site. Remember the trip to Gettysburg where I found a fabulous scrapbook store with ooodles and ooodles of paper craft supplies? Well, here's another sample of what was purchased over there on this card. I've seen several cards made using Basic Grey's Ambrosia dp and really liked it (guess it's the bright colors :-D The store also sold several embellishments to accent the paper and I went a little overboard (shhhh, don't tell my sweet hubby) by the looks of what's lying in the craft room :-D I tried using as many of the embellishments as possible, as you can tell, as well as pieces of three different Ambrosia dps. The butterfly was cut using the Spellbinders circle die; the scallop die was used to accent the butterfly. Several silver half beads were adhered to the border trims and to the butterfly to give the card more dimension. Michael's is selling a cute corner punch (small enough to use without taking up the entire card) that also has the beads adhered on the punch outs. Spellbinders rectangles were used, too, for the butterfly backdrop. SU! ticket punch was used for the banners. This sketch is fun to use and I plan to make another card using it before next week. Thanks, Laurie, for the sketch; really enjoyed playing the challenge! Thanks for taking a peek at the card; I really appreciate your visit!

Gigi

Mojo Monday 81 Happy Birthday, Cowgirl!

Hope you're enjoying a beautiful Easter; mine is filled with blessings of love, peace, and joy today. It also helps that the rain stopped last night and the sun is shining brightly and feels warm to the body through the window panes. I have fallen in love with this dp, Debbie Mumm design; maybe it's because I lived in Texas for nearly 40 years :-D I really like the girly western embellishments that were purchased in Gettysburg, PA, at the same time. The sentiment is from Rubbernecker and think that each element goes well together to play the Mojo Monday sketch challenge. I like the brown and turquoise colors together with pink added to the combination. The inside sentiment says, "Kick Up Your Heels!" Some special "cowgirl" will receive this card for her birthday; wonder who it could be?...hmmmmm.

Thanks so much for looking in today. Hope your week is fabulous and that you're inspired by something or someone to create.

Supplies:
Stamps: Western Happy Birthday (Rubbernecker), High Heels (Hero Arts)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento), Scattered Straw, Tea Dye (Ranger)...all from Rubbernecker
Paper: Select White (PTI), turquoise from stash, Chocolate Chip (SU!), Debbie Mumm (Creative Imaginations)
Accessories: Picket fence paper punch (MS), Adhesive embellishments by Debbie Mumm (Creative Imaginations), chocolate twill ribbon (SU!), pink grosgrain (PaperMart), metal brads, Copic and Prismacolor markers, pop dots, Rectangle Nesties, rhinestone (Michael's), Divine Swirls ef (Cuttlebug)

Another Wacky Wednesday Challenge Pink and Purple Bathing Beauties

Here's another attempt to play the Wacky Wednesday Challenge over at the Rubbernecker blog. This card uses the Bathing Beauties rubber stamp; I fell in love with this stamp a long time ago, but only recently purchased it and couldn't wait to ink and color it! The paper is the Polka Dot design from Papertrey Ink as well as the Raspberry Fizz twill ribbon. The images were colored with Copic and Prismacolor markers. The border punch is from MS. A corner rounder punch was used on the bottom of the white cs. While in Amarillo, I purchased a new corner punch that is much smaller than the SU! one I own, so it worked well with this card. The sand was made using Scattered Straw reinker, a used toothbrush and a popsicle stick for the splatter effect. I masked off the bathing beauties to keep the splatter within a designated space. Chalk was added for the water and sky. A small flower punch was used for the hat in the center and a white metal adhestive spot was added. I really enjoyed coloring the bathing beauties and am looking forward to coloring more although there are many other new Rubbernecker stamps to ink and color, too :-D You should take time to see what new stamps sets Mr. Rubbernecker has for sale; he also has some wonderful incentives when purchasing stamp sets that help to build up my Rubbernecker stamp collection. I really like the way the stamps ink up; the images turn out great.

Thank you for stopping by today; hope that you enjoy a day filled with abundant blessings!

Gigi

Wacky Wednesday Challenge Pink Lady Corvette

Goodness, it seems as if ages have passed since my last blog post was written! We had a wonderful time in Texas and in Colorado visiting family, especially children and grandchildren. It doesn't take long to begin missing them, but next week my daughter, Ronay, is flying out to celebrate a belated 40th birthday with hubby and me. Okay, enough of the chit chat, let's get down to business... :-D I had to endure card crafting withdrawals during the visit out west, but a friend and I enjoyed a trip to a new Michael's in Amarillo, TX, so there was some relief :-D Rubbernecker has a weekly wacky challenge and this week's challenge was to use pink and purple colors on a project. I played the challenge twice; this card uses the classic Corvette as the main image and was colored with Twinkling H2O pot paint. While out of town, some new supplies arrived in the mail, which included the Polka Dot frame from Spellbinders.

The frame was die cut and embossed. Using Fresh Snow from Papertrey Ink, a sponge was dabbed on the embossed dots. Two paper flowers were colored with Copic markers and a rhinestone was added to the center for some bling. White grosgrain ribbon was used for a backdrop to the flowers.

Have to admit that using pink and purple is difficult for me; I'm such a loud color woman :-D If you feel comfortable enough to use these colors, why not check the Rubbernecker website and try winning a great prize?

Had a wonderful surprise waiting yesterday evening when I got home from the office; I won a new set of fashion stamps from Rubbernecker! You can imagine how excited I became since the day had some chaotic moments at the office; this prize calmed me down. Actually I began screaming with excitement when I saw my name boldly written as a winner :-D

Thanks for taking time to look and read; I really appreciate it!

Gigi