January SFYTT (just barely!)

Talk about slipping in just under the wire! I decided (we’ll avoid using the word “resolved”) to try to do the SFYTT challenge every month this year. Well, I did get January’s sketch done in time, but not by much – good thing January has 31 days!

What I used:
Stamps: Just My Type (A-muse)
Ink: Memento Black, Copic Markers (C1,2,3,4)
Paper: Smokey Shadow, Going Grey, Real Red and white cardstock; patterned paper from Black & White Timeless (KaiserCraft)
Other: Nestabilities

Oh, here’s the sketch:

Wow -- three blog postings in as many days! Not sure how long I can keep this up, but I sure am having fun!

Mint Motif & FTL175

During my “don’t feel sorry for yourself because you’re not at CHA” stamping session this weekend, I also made this card using this week’s Clean & Simple FTL175 sketch:

I know the panel looks black, but it’s really Smoky Shadow, very dark grey. It’s stamped in white with Kimberly Crawford’s Mint Motif set Beyond Borders, which is featured in the new PaperCrafts issue of Stamp It! 3 Ways. Here’s the sketch it’s based on:
I swapped out some punched hearts for the flowers. The XOXO stamp is from the LilyBee Design set Head Over Heels.

I have to say, I really, really love how this card came out!

I’ll be back later this week to show you more…

Playtime!

Rather than feel TOO sorry for myself about not being with so many of my crafty friends at CHA in Anaheim, I decided to do some stamping this weekend. Didn’t get much else accomplished, but at least I had fun!

One of the cards I made was based on this week’s Card Patterns Sketch 150. For some reason, I’m still stuck in baby girl mode (being a recent new grandma and all), so this is what I came up with:

I used stamps from Lawn Fawn. The bear is from the Christmas set, Pa-Rum-Pa-Pum-Pum, and the sentiment is from Just My Type, Too. The paper is from the Sweet Owl pad by First Edition. You can’t see it in the photo, but it’s got shiny, glittery elements in it. The ribbon and pearls were colored with Copic Marker RV32. I LOVE how you can always have the right color embellishment this way! The frame was cut with Nestabilities.

I actually did quite a bit of stamping this weekend, but I’ll show you more throughout the week.

Have a good one!

IHP DT Inspiration Challenge

This month’s i {heart} papers Design Team Challenge was so much fun! Our challenge-meister, Deb Felts, gave us some gorgeous pictures of living spaces to inspire us in our creations. First I’ll show you the inspiration photo I chose:

I love pink (big shocker, I know), and I just loved the way this bold pink played off the neutrals and the brightness of the sunlit room. I also wanted to pick up the elegant feel of the room. So this is what I came up with for my card:I used stamps from the LilyBee Design set Head Over Heels. It’s such a beautiful, elegant set. The motif is stamped on white cardstock using Desert Sand ink, which is in the Memento Sorbet Scoops Dewdrops assortment that Kate sells in the store. The LOVE is stamped with Memento Rich Cocoa. I punched out some hearts and popped them up with some Sticky Thumb dimensional dots. I backed it with the same pink (Hibiscus) cardstock and mounted the whole thing on a Kraft card.

TIP: to save paper, I punched the hearts out of the pink  layer that’s behind the main panel, since I knew it wouldn’t show.

I love how this card came out! I think I need to do more inspiration challenges. I had a hard time choosing which of the beautiful rooms to pick; I can’t wait to see which photos Kate and the rest of the IHP Design Team picked to work with, and what they did with them.

Deb

Gretchen

Kate

Loretta

Lori

Lynn

Tracy

We’d love it if you’d like to play along with this Inspiration Challenge. Just post your project into the gallery at Splitcoast Stampers or Papercraft Planet and use the keyword “ihp0112” so we can find it.

Have a wonderful day!

How did I NOT post these?!!!

I was looking through my camera, trying to delete stuff and make room for photos of my upcoming trip, when I found pictures of cards that I had somehow never posted! Well, this being a new year and a time for fresh starts, I figured it was as good a time as any to catch up on posting last year’s cards!

Forgive me if I don’t go into detail – some of these were made a LONG time ago! Also, for the same reason, please forgive me if I can’t remember whose work inspired me enough to CASE it, or which sketch challenge, if any, I used at the time.

This one is the most recent of the batch. My niece Hannah turned 18 last month (how did that happen?), and this was her card.

OK, I’m just gonna start putting them up here. If you have any questions about what I used, just leave me a comment and I’ll answer if I can.

There. I think those are all the ones that are worth sharing. I do have my share of duds, you know. And it is quite possible that some cards actually got mailed/given (gasp!) without my having taken a picture of them first.

If you’ve made it this far through the post, please accept my most sincere thanks for sticking with my blog even though I am probably the world’s most recalcitrant (look it up) blog poster. I know I’m bad about it, and obviously all my intentions to be better haven’t done much good. So thanks. Really.

And let me take a moment to wish you the most joyful, healthy, successful (whatever that means to YOU), and fulfilling year yet. I can feel it already – 2012 is gonna be GREAT!