By LORi Designs Challenge #8!

 

Welcome to another fantastic challenge at By LORi Designs! :) This week's color challenge was actually a lot of fun for me! 

At first when I saw the colors I immediately thought boy but I wanted to use this adorable image called "Happy Birthday Annie"! I then decided to think outside the box and make it feminine. I LOVE the end results!

 

First I made my card. I decided to use Jen del Muro's Sketch For You To Try for the month of March. It was a really great sketch and I loved the layout of it so I decided to keep my card fairly simple (simple according to my terms at least)! I found some old Stampin' Up! paper as the big background panel and added a wide piece of ribbon as the middle stripe. I then colored my image with my Copics (LOVE THEM) and added some fun little rhinestones to the corner of the image panel. After popping it up on dimensionals I then decided to add a button to the ribbon and paper pierce the top and bottom strips. I wasn't exactly sure what to do for a sentiment so I pulled out this "happy birthday" phrase from my Stampin' Up! set called "All Holidays". I stamped it on the top and bottom of the card and at first, hated the look of it but decided it was too late to go back. However, after looking at the card a BUNCH of times, I have decided that I kind of like the double stamped sentiment!

When I use digital images I tend to print out a bunch of different sizes of the image so I can then decide how big I want the image to be. That being said, I usually end up with a ton of images that never get used which means a lot of wasted cardstock. So for this week's challenge I decided to go one step further and create a little gift as well!  My husband actually received this bucket a few years ago as an Easter basket from my mom (cute huh?) and it's been sitting in my stamp closet waiting to be altered ever since so I decided this was the perfect opportunity! :) After wrapping some ribbon and a piece of designer paper around the tin I colored (with my Copics) and cut out sweet little Annie again and then popped her up on the bucket using my glue dots! I wanted to make sure to include the balloon so I cut it out separately and strung a piece of floss from it to her hand.

So what do you think? Did it turn out alright? Make sure you stop by the By LORi Designs Challenge blog so that you too can participate in this fun challenge AND you won't want to miss what the rest of the team has created! I've already seen their creations so I know they are fabulous! :D

Take care and thanks so much for stopping by!

Cutie Patootie!

Well I was originally planning on sharing another Valentine's Day card with you but then I decided to get crafty today and came up with this card instead! :) I have had this stamp from Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps for over a year and it has never seen ink! GASP! I know, I know, I'm a bad stamper. Anyway, I bought it just after Kimmie had her very first release and then I ended up taking a stamping hiatus. I knew when I saw her I had to get her though. I find her absolutely adorable but for some reason she creeps my husband out a little! Haha! It's a good thing he doesn't get a say! ;) Her name is Charlotte and I must say that she was so much fun to color! I paired her with some of my older Paper Studio dp from the Serendipity line. She was then colored with my Copics (which I'm still attempting to learn how to use). Since I was using her I decided to go ahead and participate in this past week's Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps challenge which called for no ribbon or fibers! YIKES! I hope my flowers don't count as fibers but I thought they looked so cute with the image! Since I find her to be so cute, I am also entering this card into today's Paper Play challenge which is called "Cutie Patootie". The sketch started out as this week's SCS sketch challenge but I quickly discovered that my image didn't fit so I had to flip it instead. I really like the layout still though! As a final touch, I embossed some buttons across the bottom and distressed the edges with some Tim Holtz Antique Linen distress ink. 

Well, I think that is about it! Stop by tomorrow for the Flourishes Timeless Tuesday blog hop! I'm SO excited to share my card with you! :)

P.S. For those of you who are wondering, my blog candy will be posted on a VERY SPECIAL DAY. That is my hint for you, if you've been following my blog lately, you will know exactly what day I'm talking about! :)

Beautiful Baby

Good evening everyone! Sorry I'm a little late with my posting today but I wanted to finish reorganizing my craft room and I think I can officially say it's finished! :) I have a few projects I want to work on but they are nothing big. I'll be sure to show you pictures of it later on!

Now on to today's card! I decided to make a baby card in honor of my dear sweet baby girl and my original plan was to post it on Monday since that is when she will be here but I realized that the challenges I used for this card will be expiring before then! Haha! I again combined a bunch of different challenges and I am really pleased with the way it turned out! First of all, this sweet little image is called "Ella the Elephant" and it is from By Lori Designs. If you have never checked out their store, you definitely need to! They have the most adorable digital images! The By Lori Designs challenge this week was to use the colors dark pink, light pink, blue, and green. Go to their blog to see the color swatch that is posted. I decided to pull out my fun My Mind's Eye "Just Dreamy" paper pack and pull the colors from there! It was just perfect for this color challenge! The sketch is from the Stamptacular Sunday Challenge. Since this is a baby card it also qualifies for the Cupcake Inspirations Challenge AND the  Scrap, Stamp & Doodle Saturday challenge which was called "New Beginnings". As if that wasn't difficult enough, I also decided to play in the Paper Works Recipe Tuesday challenge which requires you to use 3 patterned papers (one of my patterned paper pieces is actually the sentiment), 3 embellishments, and an animal. Finally, the last challenge I took part in was the Paper Sundaes challenge which required you to include circles somewhere on the card. :) 

Well I think that's it for today's card! Stay tuned for tomorrow's card and don't forget that I have some fun blog candy coming up! Thanks so much for stopping in! Enjoy the rest of your Wednesday!

 

And here is a little updated picture of our nursery and my belly! I still can't get over how big I've gotten! 5 more days! :)

There's Magic In The Air! :)

Sorry for not having this information sooner but I didn't have any internet access since we are still away from home. We arrived in Iowa from Florida yesterday evening and won't head back to Colorado until tomorrow afternoon.

Anyway, this is my first card as a designer for "There's Magic In The Air" and I couldn't be more excited! Every Monday someone from the design team will host a challenge and today's challenge (which is hosted by Nina) is to create a celebration card. The challenges will also focus on a new image and today's card is featuring the first image from "There's Magic In The Air"! He is called Orson with cake and he is just so cute! I must admit that I was giggling the whole time I colored him! I just couldn't get over how cute he looked! He is a digital image that you can pick up for FREE! Seriously, go get him! Also, if you decide to play, you will be entered to win a prize! Check out the blog for more details!

Well, that's it for me! We are going fishing this afternoon and I am so excited! Enjoy your week! My regular posting will resume in no time, I promise!

I know, I know, I'm a bad blogger.

Good evening! I have had one hectic week! I spent the weekend in Ft. Collins chaperoning a choir trip. We went to a dinner theater where we had the most amazing meal (with dessert) and watched an absolutely terrific performance of the movie "Seven Brides For Seven Brothers". If you haven't seen that movie, you should. It's a great movie! Anyway, the actors and actresses did such a phenomenal job! It was a great remake of the movie! I wish we could have taken pictures but we obviously weren't allowed to. The main character Adam looked almost identical to the one in the movie!

So because I was gone, I haven't been able to get much stamping in so I decided tonight would be the perfect opportunity to play along with the There She Goes challenge. This month's challenge was to pick one of our first cards ever created and compare it to one of our recent favorites (preferable from There She Goes). Well, here we go!

This is the first card that I ever created without any assistance from a workshop. I made this card in February of last year. Looking back I realize it wasn't too bad for having no experience on my own!

Now here is a picture of my favorite card that I made THIS February!

I must admit that I am amazed at how much improvement I have made in a year! I know that I couldn't have done it without all of the inspiration that I find from Splitcoast and other bloggers! I have been influenced by so many talented stampers and they have helped shape who I am as a stamper!

Well, that's it for me tonight! I hope to share a new card with you tomorrow! :) Have a great evening!

A Simple Kind Card And A Challenge For You!

Good morning! Here is a card that I cased from the SU! Spring/Summer IBC. I obviously changed a few things but the overall concept is the same. I choose to case it because of it's simple yet elegant style. I made it my own by using Baja Breeze, Creamy Caramel, Chocolate Chip, and Very Vanilla for the color combination and I then used my Baroque Motifs set. I also decided that I wanted to stamp the sentiment on a piece of Very Vanilla card stock and I popped it up on dimensionals. Overall I LOVE how this card turned out. It was a quick and easy card and I have decided that I will probably start casing the SU! catalogs more often! And why not? They are there for inspiration aren't they?? :D So my challenge to you, my readers, is to case a card from a catalog whether it be a SU! catalog or some other catalog that you have. Pick a card, any card! I want to see what you can come up with though so make sure you post it to your blog or Splitcoast and then leave a link to your card in my comments section! I hope you find time to play because believe me, it won't be a difficult challenge once you find a card you love! Have fun and I can't wait to see your creations! :D

ETA: My good blogging buddy Jessica has started her own line of stamps and they are absolutely gorgeous! Right now you can preorder them and get them on sale too! Make sure you head over to her blog to check them out! You won't want to miss them!

Recipe:
Stamps: Baroque Motifs
Paper: Baja Breeze, Creamy Caramel, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla
Ink: Creamy Caramel, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Ribbon, Brads, Dimensionals