Something Old, Something New

Have you seen the new blog, Use It! Challenges? Each Monday, they post a new challenge that incorporates materials all of us have in our stash! This week, the challenge is to use eyelets, something that's been in your stash for more than 1 year, and polka dots. Here's the fun card I came up with:



The sketch is from Mary Jo at TechnoStamper. It is Monday Lunchtime Sketch #62. I have not gotten one of these sketches done in months, and I'm glad to be back at it. Each week, she posts a great sketch to use!

I used some dp I picked up at my LSS last week - MME Kaleidoscope "Sunny Days" Stripe and "Sunny Days" Dots. The card base is Tangerine Tango and there is also some Soft Sky layered under the dots. The chipboard circles are the negatives from the Blossoms 1 Collection, inked with Colorbox Chalk inks. Eyelets are from my huge stash. The twill is stamped with Colorbox Chalk ink and a sentiment from Mocha Chica (CHF Kim Hughes Collection).

Time to got pick up DS from school. Thanks for looking!

Because Even Superheroes Need A Little Bling...

The Stampin Gals challenge this week is to use bling on your card. I chose to use this cute Billy stamp by Pink Cat Studio as my main image. He is just too cute as a superhero, a pirate, a cowboy and a boy with a frog on his head. He will be making many appearances over the next few months as we enter the Fall Birthday Season. Seriously, there is at least one birthday for DS's friends during each of the next 5 months.For bling, I added a rhinestone to his belt and also heat embossed the chipboard rick rack with Holographic EP. He is colored with Bic Mark-It markers and the circles for the sentiment are cut with Cuttlebug dies. I hope the lightning bolts around him show up in the photo.

It's been another doozy of a week, and I'm glad tomorrow is Friday!! I got the sweetest mail today - an envelope of Prima flowers from none other than Kim Hughes! What a great surprise :) She has new papers coming out tomorrow from CHF and I can't wait to see them.

This weekend, I will be going on a 13 mile "Route Preview" walk in preparation for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in NYC. Hopefully I won't be too tired afterward to spend some quality time in my craft room. It's been way too long since I had time to just play!

Have a good Friday. Thanks for looking!

Another Challenge Card...

The one thing I got done creatively today was this card. It uses some of the leftover materials sent to me by Sue at Stampndaly.com. This card also fits the Ways To Use It challenge from this week - Negative Thoughts.I used the chipboard circle that the star was in, and embossed it with detail white ep. The sentiment on the botton red tag is also white embossed, but I always forget to use my embossing buddy before sprinkling the powder, and there are stray bits. The side sentiment is from Hambo. I added some green brads to the orange strip along the side and punched more stars from the dotted dp. I also added a corner punch from the dotted dp to the lower right edge of the tag. From my stash are the orange rhinestones at the points of the star. It really looked too plain without them. This is all mounted on the red striped dp and then the orange, and added to a white card base.

This card was another real challenge for me, but I feel good about stretching my creativity. My stamp room is all clean and ready for more cards later tonight. I've got my eye on a bookcase from another part of the house, I just have to figure out what to do with the things on it right now before I can swipe it. My poor dh hasn't discovered that I rearranged our guest room again yet, either! Let's see how long it takes him to notice...

Thanks for looking!

A Challenging Gift Card Holder

Early in June, Susan Daly from Stampindaly.com issued a challenge on her blog. She would send out a little packet of materials and the recipients had to create something with those materials. Of course, I forgot to take a "before" picture, but she sent me some orange, yellow and red cardstock, some double-sided dp (red on red stars/polka dots), some striped dp, a chipboard star, an image, a few tags in red and white and some black grosgrain ribbon.

Here is the card she sent with the goodies. Isn't it cute that she created a ladybug from punched shapes? And I always love flowers on flourishes! These materials have been in my head since I got them, and I wanted to do something special. Since the colors are really outside my comfort zone, I waited and waited until the idea came to me. Then I had to wait some more until I had time to execute the idea! Well, today was the day and I made time tonight to complete it. I still have pieces of materials left, and will make another card tomorrow after a good night's sleep.

I chose to make a flap card gift card holder. To begin, I covered the star in the dotted paper. In the center of the star is a small punched star and a rhinestone. The star hides the magnet closure for the card. The outside is layered with the red, then the striped dp. I even took the time to match up the pattern of the pieces so it looks more polished!!

Inside, I colored the hippo with Prismacolor pencils and blended with OMS. I dragged the gray around the image to create a shadow. The main image is mounted on red, then the dotted dp and adhered to the center part of the card. The bottom, as you can see, has a strip of the black ribbon across it that holds the gift card in place. One problem - the gift card slid out the bottom of the card when opened all the way. As a remedy, I added a tag that has a sentiment from my own collection and some punched stars from the dotted dp. This is attached to the ribbon with a red brad (also from my stash) and the lower right corner is adhered with a glue dot, which holds the gift card in place. Clever, no? I'm sure I'm not the first to use this trick!

This is the first time I have used the BG magnet snaps. I LOVE THEM!!!

I hope Susan likes what I have produced. I'm hoping to get more stamping time this weekend. My desk is relatively cleaned off, so I won't have to waste time doing that before getting started. The only chores for the morning are a run to the farmer's market to supplement our tomatoes and zucchini, and a trip to get a haircut for DS. Then the boys will take a ride in the new car and the day is mine (insert evil laugh here)!

Hope you all have a good weekend. Thanks for looking :)

Chippy Frames

DS was content to "be busy" with me in the craft room yesterday, and I was able to complet the Ways To Use It challenge on SCS. It was to use chipboard on a project. I got these very cute letters from Teri a while ago and have been wanting to use them. Yesterday was the day the lightbulb went on over my head and out came these IKEA picture frames!

I made one frame each for our nieces, who live in AZ. They are girly-girls and I think they will like them. I used Berry Bliss dp from SU! and added some ribbons and primas for a bit of decoration. Can I say how much I LOVE Mod Podge??? Every time I use it, I am amazed at how that stuff sticks. These letters are not falling off the frames! It's hard to see the pink pattern in the photo. It's been raining here and the lighting was not great in my craft room last night.As I was cruising around the web today, I spotted the Scotch ATG gun at Overstock.com for $49.99 with $2.95 shipping. Has anyone purchased from them? I'd like to hear some feedback before placing an order. They also had a bunch of Nestabilities listed, who knows if they're actually in stock or will be backordered.

Tonight, I am babysitting my girlfriend's daughter, and will be alone with her and my DS. Hopefully they will cooperate at bedtime and I will get to play some more. If not, I will have to wait until Sunday, when the boys give me some quiet time to craft. I've been in a pink rut lately, and have to use more colors before you all get sick of seeing it! We have some birthdays and my brother and SIL are celebrating 15 years of marriage next month. I'll see what I can come up with for them. I might just have to go to IKEA to get more frames, too :)

Hope you all have a nice Friday! Thanks for looking!