ColourQ and Messy Deadlines

This week's ColourQ challenge gave me a gorgeous palette to work with - Lucky Limeade, Melon Mambo, Pumpkin Pie, Kraft (Crumb Cake), and (Whisper) White. Such fun, springy colors! I came up with two freaking adorable cards for this challenge, and it was going to be the perfect post for our upcoming May Day blog hop -- except that the challenge ends tonight (!!) and not on Wednesday when our hop is. Oops! So here's the challenge projects, and you can look forward to seeing some brand NEW (hint, hint - sneak peeks!) projects for the hop in a few days.

My favorite part of this one? The details!

My second favorite part? The adorable coordinating 3x3 card I made to go with it!

I like the torn honeycomb background in particular. Isn't it fun?


Like I said, this was for the ColourQ cQc182 Challenge, which has this fun and Spring-themed inspiration photo:

This card was CASE'd! I also want to give credit to the card that inspired these projects. I found this card by Amanda Mertz over at Did You Stamp Today, and I just LOVED it! So I decided to basically use her layout with the ColourQ color challenge.

REMINDER: Look forward to our May Day Blog Hop this Wednesday! My projects will feature some of the fun BRAND NEW, will-be-debuting-in-June's-catalog products I bought at the Salt Lake Regional event.

Paper Players One-Layer Challenge

This week, The Paper Players had an interesting challenge -- a one-layer card. So many of the cards I make involve multiple layers either through stamps or just separate layers, so this was quite a challenge for me. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, especially the "faux layer" around the greeting. 

This is a technique I've seen used a lot, but I've never actually done it. I stamped the sentiment and then taped a mask over it. Then I stamped the leaves and flowers and sponged off the edges of the mask. That's it! A simple technique, but it gives a cool effect. 

Challenge Info

Card Details

Stamps: Summer Silhouettes, Perfectly Penned

Ink: Pink Pirouette, Old Olive, Creme Cake, Daffodil Delight, Soft Suede

New things are coming!

Yesterday, I spent ALL DAY at a huge Stampin' Up! regional event. (You can read more about it over on SU owner/founder Shelli Gardner's blog.) It was a blast!! My first-ever SU event -- what a great day.

Along with 400 other demonstrators, I got to see (and play with!) some new products that are coming out in this year's upcoming catalog. I also got to see the new catalog!

Guys.

It's awesome.

Seriously.

I'm really stinking excited to show it to you! So many fun new products and accessories and colors!


. . .


. . .


But sadly, I can't show it to you quite yet. I will soon -- literally as soon as I am legally allowed to post about it, the new stuff will be featured on this blog within minutes. I promise! Okay? Okay.

So to tide you over, here's a quick video about something you can buy soon: new cases for our wood-mount stamps! Because I don't know about you, but I'd sure love more stackable cases for my collection of wood stamps.

I love all the other fun things they show using the cases for -- lunch boxes, punch storage, projects to-go, and tons more! Available for purchase May 31. (And PS: this video may or may not give you a sneak peek of a fun new stamp set that is coming soon -- so keep an eye out for that!)

Teapots, Fun Folds, and Paper Players

Evidently, I'm terrible at noting deadlines. I made this card based on a layout from the Friday Mashup sketch challenge, and I completely missed the challenge deadline! Lately, this has happened a few times more than I would like to admit.

Luckily, though, I also made this card for a color challenge: the lovely folks over at The Paper Players gave a gorgeous color combo this week, and so that's what inspired the details of this card.

I have to admit, this card was HARD to get through! I spent two hours hemming and hawing over details, colors, how to make the teapot stand out more, and on and on. Two hours, people!  ... Ahem. Anyway, I ended up just about giving up, and I set it aside overnight and came back to it later. In the end, I'm really pleased with how this card turned out. The tone-on-tone stack of teacups off to the left of the card? Definitely adds needed interest to the background, along with the small pearls in the upper right. Oh, I love little details.  :)

You want to see the best part, though?

It opens from the middle! I know, it's a really simple "fun folds" type of card (especially compared to some of the crazy, fancy cards I've seen!), but I was really inspired by the Fab Friday layout to make this card open like this. It's such a fun touch!

The details on the teapot are also pretty fun. It was watercolored in Baja Breeze (to match the DSP), with details highlighted in Rich Razzleberry. Tiny little Basic Pearls adorn the body of the teapot, and some Baker's Twine brings in the darker Island Indigo color, too. (And yes, the card is being held open with an egg carton. Hey, you work with what you've got.)


Here's the challenge info:

And, even though I missed it, the sketch from Friday Mashup:

Two Sketches and My Favorite "New" Color

This week, I discovered that THREE of the challenge blogs I frequent had similar sketches. I took that as the universe telling me I needed to use this layout -- so here's what I came up with:

I just LOVE how this one turned out! I don't usually "do" any of the Stampin' Up! "In Colors" (since they're only around for a relatively short time) but since this gorgeous Pool Party color has been announced as part of our Color Refresh, I am definitely looking forward to using it for years to come! (Possibly my favorite SU color ... except maybe Rich Razzleberry, but that's mostly because it's got an awesome name.)

I really like how the Basic Gray background (with the Honeycomb Textured Embossing Folder) looks with the bright, springy colors from the DSP. If you want to see another GENIUS idea for customizing this particular pattern of DSP, go check out Julie Wadlinger's entry in our Just Because blog hop. Betcha won't even recognize the paper!

And then, of course, the card needed a little bling -- so I added some of our Basic Jewels rhinestones to the DSP design to jazz it up a bit. The Tangerine Tango accents under the DSP and in the sentiment really make this a happy little "anytime" card.

I've entered this card in TWO challenges! (Because I'm daring like that.) Go check them out!
(It would have also been entered into Fab Friday, but I totally missed their deadline.... again! Go figure...)

Create with Connie and Mary (CCMC 247)

Clean and Simple Stamping 235

Card Details

Paper: Pool Party, Basic Gray, Whisper White cardstock; International Bazaar DSP

Ink: Tangerine Tango

Tools and Accessories: Honeycomb Textured Embossing Folder (Big Shot), Basic Jewels, Paper Snips (for cutting banner and placing rhinestones)

Easy-Peasy "Thank You" Cards

Remember a while ago when I posted those bookmarks I made for my old coworkers? Well, I also made them some quick thank-you cards, since they were such fantastic people to work with.

I was making all of these (impromptu) gifts the night before my last day at that job, so whatever I did had to be quick and easy to make at least 6 variations of. I ended up making 3x3" cards with a simple, punched-out sentiment and various colors of backgrounds.

Ta-da! Here's the whole lot of them, sitting on my desk at work. Here's a close-up of each one:

So, yeah, it's taken me FOREVER to post these, even though they were SUPER DUPER SIMPLE to make. However, there's a silver lining to my procrastination! This week's SUO Challenge (SUO68) is all about using ONE main color (and an accent/neutral, if you want) -- which is exactly what I did with these cards! Just goes to show that simple is sometimes really the best answer.

"Just Because" Blog Hop!

Welcome to our Blog Hop! Our group of fabulous demonstrators get together (online) on the first of every month to share really great projects, and we finally have a name -- "Stamp. Scrap. Sew. Share. Create." This month's theme is "Just Because." It was my month to pick a theme, and I've noticed lately that I never have enough "out of the blue" cards on hand to send to friends. So that's what we're showcasing this month -- projects for those "just because" moments.

Be sure to click through to all the blogs on our hop!

On to the projects!

You may already know about my love of butterflies (I even have a motto!), so my choice for projects probably doesn't come as a surprise -- they're all centered around the Beautiful Wings Embosslit © for the Big Shot!

I started with this card, inspired by one I found
on CraftinUp.com.

Then I made a cute notebook to go with it.
(My stamping tends to be like If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.)

And, inspired by Retro Sketches, I made this card!

 All three projects use the same colors and basic theme, yet they turned out different. I love how versatile these products are! Like the captions say, the first card was CASE'd from another demonstrator, the notebook was my own creation (inspired by the first card), and the last one was made for a sketch challenge. I really love the challenges over at Retro Sketches, and this one was no exception!! Isn't it a fun layout? Here's the challenge info for RS#57:

And be sure to check out all our other fabulous hops!
"Holiday Shimmer" Hop
"Love is in the Air" Hop
"Birthday Bash" Hop
"Colors of Spring" Hop