FMS 55 - My entry for this week's challenge!

Ta-da! My entry for this week's Freshly Made Sketches challenge is done!

I had a really hard time coming up with a card for this challenge, but I think it's because I was trying to kill two birds with one stone. See, it was my best friend's birthday this weekend, too, so I was trying to force this card to be a birthday card -- and it just wasn't having it! So I ended up with this cute "Hello" card instead. I'll make Kelsey her card tomorrow. For now, I'm going to bed!

I had a lot of fun adding all the little pearl accents, and I got to use some of the ribbon I got for FREE during last month's "Back to Spool" promotion.

Materials used for this card:
Paper: Whisper white (for punched images); crumb cake
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Soft Suede, Certainly Celery, Tempting Turquoise, Daffodil Delight
Tools: Scallop punches, circle punches, dimensionals
Accents: Basic pearls, Raspberry Ripple 3/8" stitched satin ribbon

A Challenge!

Every week, the lovely folks over at Freshly Made Sketches post a sketch challenge. What that means is they give a basic layout for a card, and anyone who wants to participate simply makes a card based on their sketch, posts it on their own blog, and links it to the week's challenge. Then the FMS ladies pick their favorites and award the winners! How fun is that! They've got some GREAT ideas over there; you can scroll through past challenges and see how different people interpret the sketches. If you're ever looking for some inspiration, check them out!

The reason I bring this all up is -- This week, I'll be participating! Whatever challenge they pose, I'll make a card and post it here. It's a great way to get your creative juices flowing, and it helps to push me out of my little tiny comfort zone and into trying something new. Having a layout provided makes it a lot easier to jump in and get started. Why don't you try out this week's challenge, too? Anyone is welcome to join!

Birthday Month!

In my family, there are two HUGE birthday months - May and September. It seems like there are a ton of birthdays in those months, so I'm always scrambling to make cards for everyone. I decided to keep them super simple this year, and found an awesome layout while browsing Pinterest, SU forums, and other Demonstrator blogs. There are SO many great ideas floating around out there, and Stampin' Up fully encourages the CASE mentality - Create And Share EVERYTHING! So thank you to whoever I actually got this idea from, because I don't remember who it was (sorry!). You an check out some of my inspiration on Pinterest. Just click the "Follow me on Pinterest" button in the sidebar and look for my "Stampin Up and Cards/Papercrafting" board.

Below are two of the cards I made (my dad never reads this blog as far as I know, so posting his card should be safe, right? ... Right? Well, it's here anyway.)

sorry, the color's washed out on this one.
Simple layout, rounded corners.
Labels Collection framelits, linen twine, basic pearls.
Old Olive, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, Tempting Turquoise.
Make a Cake, Tiny Tags

Closer shot of the interesting part of the card. My favorite part
is the touch of pearls on the cake stand.

My Dad's birthday card.
Close to Cocoa, Tempting Turquoise.
Chevron texture folder, linen twine, Labels Collection Framelits.

SU's completely customizable Starter Kit -- A Steal of a Deal!

Just to give you an idea of how much stuff you can get in your $99, completely customizable starter kit, here's what I saw when I opened up my starter kit package:

There's 4 ink pads (Pumpkin Pie, Pretty in Pink, Cherry Cobbler, & Perfect Plum), 2 clear stamp sets (Kindness Matters & Make a Cake, 1 individual wood stamp (Quint-essential Flower), the Labels Collection Framelits die set, 2 sets of buttons, Designer Series Paper (Patio Party), a My Digital Studio digital content disc (part of the Make a Cake promo bundle for when I signed up), and training & business materials. Whew, that's a long list!! I'm pretty sure there was also a Snail adhesive in there, too, somewhere, and maybe some regular Whisper White cardstock. What I DO know is that all of this came to a total value of $124 (plus all the promotional free stuff, which was worth at least $50, for a total of $174), but I only paid $99 for my Starter Kit. Talk about a great deal!

Kindness Matters - and so do good friends

A few weeks ago, my old roommate came over and we spent a couple hours stamping together. This was probably my favorite card that came out of that stamp session, made with what is quickly becoming my current favorite stamp set. It  came together pretty quickly -- so quickly, in fact, that I'm using this as my swap card for a demonstrator meeting this week & making about 20 of them!

Stamps: Kindness Matters
Paper; Old Olive, Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip
Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Real Red
Embellishments & tools: Pearl Basic Jewels, Square Lattice BigShot texture folder, Labels Collection Framelits die