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!

LoVE YoU Bunches!

 

Hey everyone! I'm finally back! :) We had a fantastic trip and I was honestly sad to have to go home. We miss our family so incredibly much and now that we have a baby, we have become even more homesick. Anyway, I apologize for not getting crafty while I was away. Between family visits and diaper changes, I just didn't have time! Haha! However, as soon as I got home I got crafty and am back to share my creations!

I absolutely love this image from By LORi Designs! Her name is Harper and she is one of the adorable Puddle Jumpers! I actually created this card for the current By LORi Designs color challenge that you can find here! The colors are great and I had a lot of fun playing with them! The sketch is from last week's Mojo Monday blog as well! 

Well that's it for today! Thanks so much for sticking with me! I'll have another card to share with you tomorrow so stay tuned for that! :)

Before I go, here are some pictures that we took while we were in Iowa!

My sweetie and me!

Uncle Matt approves!

Addison meeting her cousins and great grandma for the first time!

Our latest family picture. Look how much hair she has lost! :(

By LORi Designs Challenge: BLD5

It's time for another By Lori Designs Challenge and I'm running behind! My card has been done for quite some time but I completely forgot to post it to my blog! I guess you can say I've been a little distracted while I've been here in Iowa! I can't even believe how crazy busy Addie and I have been! It's nuts! We've been visiting family and friends non-stop! :)

Now on to today's card! This week's challenge is an AWESOME color combination! I absolutely LOVE it and the image I used is perfect for it! I must admit that this may just be one of my very favorite images from Lori Designs and the reason for that is because it is called "Baby Addy". Now I know the spelling is different but it still holds a dear place in my heart! I mean seriously, how cute is she??? I think she kind of even looks like my baby Addie! :) Anyway, the paper I used is some retired Stampin' Up! designer paper (I can't remember the name of it). The sketch is one of the Viva la Verve sketch challenges from this month and the image was colored with my copics. 

Well thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you have time to play in today's challenge! There are some awesome opportunities in store for you! Each week the team will vote on a TOP Lollipop CARD and that designer will receive a digi from the BLD Shop and will have an opportunity to be our guest designer for the following challenge. How awesome is that??? Make sure you stop by the By LORi Designs challenge blog to see what the other lovely ladies have created! Have a fantastic Thursday!

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! :)

Hi Tweetie!

 

Are you ready for another Valentine's Day card? I'm telling you, it's an addiction! :) I honestly wish I had more Valentine's designer paper but I don't so you will just have to bear with me! 

So for this card I decided to pile on the challenges! I was able to combine so many of them! First of all, the images are from Clear Dollar Stamps in the set called "Love Tweet Love". This is a really fun digital image set with 3 images and 4 sentiments! The best part, it only cost me $3! What a deal! :) Anyway, I decided to use it for the Clearly iStamp challenge called "Love is Sweet". I also pulled the colors from the inspiration challenge over on Crazy 4 Challenges and since I was using these cute birds I decided to enter it in the Our Creative Corner inspiration challenge as well! The sketch is from The Sweet Stop challenge and I also decided to enter this card into the BasicGrey challenge which was to use dots or spots. Finally, I saw that this past week's JUGS challenge was to decorate and line a matching envelope so I went ahead and did that as well! :) PHEW! Talk about a challenge! It wasn't easy trying to include every challenge but I managed to do it! 

The designer paper is from BasicGrey's Bittersweet line and the buttons are some I just happened to have in my stash! I have been in a "distressed mood" lately (hehe) so I sponged and roughed up the edges and added a little bit of sewing as my final touch!

Well, I hope you enjoy today's card! I have been working on organizing and purging my craft room this week. I have a couple of projects that I created to help my organization so I will be sharing those with you throughout the next couple of weeks! Also, stay tuned for some blog candy! Purging means sharing! :)

Patterned Pines Joy!

So does anyone else agree that my sporadic posting needs to come to an end? This pregnancy has just stolen all of my mojo from me! I'm 26 weeks pregnant and finally feel as if my creativity is coming back! I made 5 cards this week! Woohoo! I went downstairs and showed them to my husband and he said "Look! You've still got it!" Haha! That definitely made my day!

Anyway, this is a card that I made for Tuesday's SCS color challenge and Julee's Mojo Monday sketch challenge! The color challenge was to use Pink Pirouette, Real Red, and Pear Pizazz. Well I don't have Pear Pizazz so I went with Old Olive instead and I really like the finished look! I used the Patterned Pines set (for the first time) that I got out of last year's SU! Holiday Mini catalog! I couldn't believe it had never seen ink and then I remembered that my stamping kind of died off right after I had received it. :( I plan on using it A LOT more this winter though!

My friend Christine sent me the newest SU! catalog a couple of weeks ago (Thanks so much Christine!) and I have LOVED looking at all of the new stuff they have out! Sadly, we are VERY short on cash this winter since I lost my job and my husband doesn't have much work lined up until spring so I will have to be patient with my wish list. I suppose I have plenty to use here anyway!

Well, I think that's all I have for you today! Thanks so much for stopping by and to all of you subscribers that have stuck with me so far, YOU ROCK! I appreciate you all SO much!

Give Thanks

Happy Wednesday! :) Only two more sleeps until my sweet husband is home and I can't wait! Anyway, I made this card a little while back for Gina K's World Card Making Day challenge! I have always been a huge fan of Gina K stamps. In fact, they were my very first non-Stampin' Up! company to try out and I haven't been disappointed yet! For this card I used Theresa Momber's Autumn Beauty set and paired it with some old Stampin' Up! paper and Wal-Mart ribbon! :) For the vanilla strip I decided to stamp some leaves and color them in with my Copics so that I could give the card a little bit more of an autumn feel. I just didn't feel that the patterned paper was doing it. I also felt it was a little too orange! I also colored the sunflower (and yes I know sunflowers are orange) with my Copics as well! The challenge was a color challenge to use orange, green, and brown and that is why I decided to go with an orange sunflower! Haha!

Well, that's it for today's card! Can you believe how much I have been posting lately? My week is finally slowing down and I feel like I can breathe! Hopefully I can continue to consistently post! Oh, and for those of you who are patiently waiting for that blog candy...sorry but you have to keep waiting. I am just not ready to post it yet! :) Ok, well I hope you have a fantastic day! Take care!

Happy 4th of July!

Well, I was able to find time to stamp today and since it is the 4th I decided to even make a patriotic card! :) I used my C.C. Designs digi stamps from All That Scraps! Isn't she so cute? You can get her as well as a long haired version for only $3! Anyway, I played along in the All That Scraps & OCC's challenge which was to use red, white, & blue as well as today's Clean & Simple sketch. I do feel like this card is missing something but I wanted to keep it as simple as possible!

Well, I am going to keep this post short so that I can get some stuff done before we go back out to the lake! Enjoy your holiday!

I Can't Believe It!

Sorry for taking so long with my Cupcake Challenge card but I couldn't find my mojo. I was needing some inspiration and after hours of looking, I finally found it! I saw Dawn's Raspberry Suite color challenge and thought it matched the pinks in my Raspberry Tart paper perfectly! After adding some Basic Gray and Whisper White card stock and I had the right colors!

So guess what...this is an SU! only card! Can you believe it? I sat myself down and decided that I was going to make a card using only Stampin' Up! products no matter what! I am so proud of myself for succeeding! :D I used my Central Park stamp set and stamped the image in Basic Gray, Cameo Coral, and Regal Rose. I used a rub-on from the Chit Chat pack and added some white detail to the scallops with my gel pen. To finish up the card I added some taffeta ribbon, silver brads, and a silver clip.

Now, do you want to hear some fabulous news??? I AM GOING TO THE CHA CRAFT SUPERSHOW! :D I am so thrilled! Nick and I just happen to be going on vacation to Orlando that week and CHA is IN Orlando this summer! Woohoo! I couldn't believe it! I asked Nick what he thought about it and he said "Sure, we can go!" Anyway, I wanted to share my news with you because I have always wanted to go but it's been too far away. If any of you are going, let me know and we can meet up!

Ok, before you go check out Taylor's blog for the sketch!

Want to see more? Sure you do! Make sure you check out the rest of the fabulous Cupcake Samplers! They're sure to be great!

Jami Sibley: More is More
Donna Baker: Serenity in Stamping
Sherrie Siemens: Card Creme
Ana Wohlfahrt: Ink a Stamp
Lynn Mercurio: Stamperosity
Monika Davis: M.A.D. Stamper

A Joyful Birdie!

Well our birdies are certainly joyful today! It is an absolutely gorgeous day here! We had 70 degree temps with hardly any wind! Woohoo! Today we took our kids on a little mini field trip to our supermarket and we couldn't have asked for nicer temperatures! It was a lot of fun to get out and take a walk, that's for sure!

Anyway, I made this card for the Unity Celebration color challenge. I love this paper called "Sweet Slumber" from Stampin' Up! It fit the color challenge PERFECTLY! To go along with this challenge I also used the Mojo Monday sketch challenge from last week (yes I know I am behind). The bird is from the adorable Unity set called "Giggle Grove" and the sentiment is from the set called "Feel the Joy". Overall I really like how this card turned out. I know that I broke some serious rules by not adding string to my button but I just couldn't get it to look right!

Well, that's it for today. We have another field trip tomorrow. We are taking our kiddos to a Pippi Longstocking play and then to the Children's Museum! It will hopefully be lots of fun! I have another crazy and hectic weekend a head of me. We are taking a van full of youth to a conference in Denver for the weekend. I already plan on being dead tired when we get home so I am not exactly looking forward to not having a break before I have to start work on Monday. I just feel like we have been going nonstop and I really need a day off! Ok, enough of my pitiful wining! :D

Have a great evening!

A New Card, A New Look

I downloaded a free 30 day trial of Photoshop Elements and have been playing around with it a lot! :D In fact, I spent so much time with it yesterday, I only got 2 cards made! Haha! So do you like the new look? I have seen some other women using this digi kit but decided it was too cute not to use! I started out by making my blog header and then decided to make some sidebar headers as well. I really like how they turned out! Oh...check out my picture too! I figured out how to make a watermark! It's simple but I think it looks neat.

Anyway, today's card was an easy one but I am not that happy with how it turned out. I used Jen's Sketch For You To Try from last week and Krisitina's Color Challenge on it. I pulled out my Stitched Exotics stamp set and paired it with my Candy Lane dsp. I used some chocolate cordoroy brads and wide ribbon as well. The sentment is a rub on from the Chit Chat pack.

I am going to keep this post short today because I have lots to do and we still need to go to Pueblo to get groceries! I hope you all have a fabulous Saturday! :D

TSG Sneak Peek: Slow and Steady

Ok...I must admit that I absolutely LOVE this little dragonfly from the new There She Goes set called "Slow and Steady"! Now, I must say that the entire set is really cute but for some reason this dragonfly just stole my heart! Haha! I don't know what it is about it, it's just so adorable and innocent looking! :) Anyway, when I saw today's sketch challenge on SCS I knew right away what I was going to do...I was going to use this little guy (or gal)! Now, I did struggle a bit with the color scheme that I wanted to pull off because of the fact that I wanted to keep the card really simple. I wanted the focus to be on these adorable little dragonflies and not on anything else so I went with these bright and earthy colors that were included in Tuesday's color challenge! I used this piece of dp from the BasicGrey Urban Prairie pack (yes I am obsessed with BG) as the main panel. I then layered it on Whisper White and Pumpkin Pie. The next thing I did was to use a piece of dp from the retired Hawaii Papaya set and layere it on some Pumpkin Pie for my horizontal strip. I stamped my dragonflies, colored them in using my SU! Markers (Pumkin Pie & Summer Sun) and Kiwi Kiss ink pad with my blender pen. I then added some crystal stickles over their wings so that this card would be eligable for the "Bling It Out" challenge that There She Goes has going on this week. Anyway, the images were then punched with my 1" square punch and layered on some more Pumpkin Pie pieces that were punched with my bigger square punch. I popped all three squares up on dimensionals, tied some ribbon, stamped the sentiment, and added the crystals for the final look! It was an easy card that shouldn't have took me very long but did because of my little case of OCD! Haha!

Well, I hope you enjoyed! Don't forget to stop by all the fabulous DT blogs and leave them some love! I know their creations will stun you! :) Take care and have a fabulous night (or morning, depending on where you live)!


Jessica (owner) http://jessica-thereshegoes.blogspot.com/
Angela http://aninkandasmile.blogspot.com/
Becky http://www.lakeshorestamper.com/
Bev http://bevithia.blogspot.com/
Christi http://cici510.blogspot.com/
Denise http://thepaperlandscaper.blogspot.com/
Faith http://stampinwithmarkiesmom.blogspot.com/
Holly http://toyzhaven.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/
Jessie http://canyousayaddictedtostamps.blogspot.com/
Joanne http://inkyoceangazer.blogspot.com/
Jodi http://stampingalatte.blogspot.com/
Julie http://stampsandtaxes.blogspot.com/
Maki http://makinkstudio.blogspot.com/
Silke http://silkeledlow.blogspot.com/
Wendy http://wickedlywonderfulcreations.blogspot.com/

An Oldie But a Goodie!

Make sure you scroll down to see my huge give-a-way!!!


I made this card almost a month ago for the Verve "Lookin' For Love" challenge week! I am not even sure why I waited this long to post it because I really do like how it turned out! Julee challenged us to use these colors together and I was shocked at how gorgeous they looked! I used my Verve set called "Serenity" again and paired it with my Bella Rose (I believe) dsp. I scuffed up the edges of the image panel, heat embossed the sentiment in the lower corner, added some brads to the upper corner, and tied on a piece of ribbon. It was a quick and easy card! Well, thanks for stopping by! Enjoy your Thursday!

Last Week's SCS Sketch and an OCC Challenge!

Before I share my card I have to shout out this out... "I GOT MY NEW SU! CATALOGS AND THEY ARE AMAZING!" Haha. Ok, I feel better! Wow, I am not kidding when I say that this catalog rocks! I know I said this about the last catalog but I must say that this one is the best yet! My wish list is HUGE! Ok, enough about the catalog. If you want one, shoot me an email and we can talk! Now on to my card.


I'm posting a little earlier than usual (yay!) so I should have more time to chat tonight! Hehe! I hope that you all had a wonderful day. Mine was actually pretty laid back. My Thursday's at school are usually pretty easy because my kids are at specials a lot but today was even more relaxing because we had a movie and popcorn party. It was a lot of fun and I know that they really enjoyed it.

Anyway, I made this card for last week's (yes I know...another late one) SCS sketch challenge and OCC's challenge to use two colors of blue and a neutral. I again paired my Verve Stamps with my Our Daily Bread Designs stamps for this card. I used the cross from the ODBD set called "Flourished Christian Symbols" (told you I would love this set) and the verse is one of the Plain Jane stamps from Verve! I just think these stamps pair up so nicely! Anyway, the two blues I used were Not Quite Navy and Baja Breeze. These are my absolute two favorite blues ever so it was not question that I would pick them. I used more of my Urban Garden dsp and embossed my white background with my swirls cb embossing folder. To finish up this card I added some Baja Breeze ribbon and some Not Quite Navy Brads. I love the finished look! Well, that's it for tonight! I will be back in the morning with my Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge card! :) Have a great night!

TCP Tuesday...Errr...Wednesday & A Sketch For You To Try

Yup, I combined two challenges on this card and both were actually from Jen del Muro's blog this week! :D I used Jen's weekly Sketch For You To Try AND since she was this week's TCP Tuesday challenge host, I used her color challenge as well! The color challenge this week was to use Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, and Taken with Teal. I just happen to love this color combination so it was a piece of cake for me (hehe...no pun intended). Anyway, I am really happy with how this card turned out. The brads really do match too but they look less olivey in the picture. Anyway, this is another late post so I am going to keep it short. One of these days I am going to be able to post earlier than 10 min. before bed! Hehe! Sorry again for the shortness of it! Enjoy your sleep ladies!

I LOVE Today's Color Challenge!

In fact, I love it so much I made THREE! :D The color challenge on Splitcoast was using the colors elegant eggplant, old olive, and taken with teal! Now...I love all three of these colors on their own but I love them even more when they are together! Now the first two cards I made are gorgeous but the third is not my favorite! Haha. I really don't like it when I hold it next to the other two! Oh...did you notice that I used almost ALL Stampin' Up! materials??? The only thing that isn't from SU! are the brads. I am just so proud of myself! Hehe! All three of these cards use Anni-Verve-sary sketches too. I guess that's all I have for now! It is going to be one busy night! Have a great rest of the day!Recipe:
Stamps: Doodle This, All Holidays
Paper: Whisper White, Elegant Eggplant, Old Olive, Taken with Teal, Watercolor
Ink: Old Olive, Black StazOn
Accessories: Dimensionals, Blender Pens, SU! Markers, Crystal Effects, Ribbon, Scallop Edge Punch, Gel Pen

Recipe:
Stamps: Baroque Motifs
Paper: Whisper White, Old Olive, Taken with Teal, Elegant Eggplant
Ink: Elegant Eggplant, Old Olive
Accessories: Brads, Dimensionals, Ribbon, Scallop Edge Punch

Recipe:
Stamps: Sock Monkey
Paper: Old Olive, Elegant Eggplant, Taken with Teal, Whisper White, Bali Breeze dp
Ink: Black StazOn
Accessories: SU! Markers, Punches, Rub-ons, Brads, Paper Piercer, Dimensionals, Crystal Effects

Can You Handle Another Christmas Card??? :D

Especially one in July??? I certainly hope so because here it is! :D I made this card for Ashley's Brainwave challenge and the Hanna Stamps sketch challenge over on Splitcoast. Ashley gave us a fantastic color challenge (I threw in an extra color, I hope that's ok Ash!) and Francis challenged us to use this sketch and then try to turn it into a Christmas card! Well, since I don't have any Hanna Christmas stamps yet, I had to make due with what I had! I kind of thought this little Riley looked cozy and warm in his fluffy chair with his coffee in hand so I decided he would work just fine! He reminds me of the winter days when I like to curl up with a hot drink and listen to Christmas music. Hmm...should I be looking forward to those times already??? Haha! Anyway, I loved this paper from KI Memories but wasn't sure how to use it until this card! I love how it turned out! The only thing I am disappointed in is the fact that the sentiment looks crooked in the picture, It is attatched to the ribbon so it must have gotten bumped by one of the little ones as they huddled around me while I took the picture. In fact, here is little Braleigh being her ornery self by sitting right smack dab in front of the camera so that I couldn't see my card. I just had to get a picture of that! She's just too cute, even if she does have on her "gwumpy face". Aunt Stephanie wasn't paying enough attention to her I guess!
Oh, I have to tell you a funny story about her too. We were all in a store and she was being defiant (she gets that from her big brother) and didn't want to walk with her mom so her mom said "Braleigh, do you want me to spank you?" Braleigh then responded with "Mommy, don you pank my butt!" Haha! How can a 3 year old be so bossy and cute at the same time???

Recipe:
Stamps: Hanna Stamps (Riley with Coffee), All Holidays
Paper: Old Olive, Brocade Blue, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, KI Memories dp
Ink: Black StazOn, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: SU! Markers, Coluzzle, Corner Rounder Punch, Ribbon, Taylor's Tots, Dimensionals