Crafty Gals Group Monthly Challenge

It is time for the the monthly Crafty Gals Blog Group Challenge.  Barb is this month's hostess and here is her challenge to us  "Many of us will be taking a summer trip someplace, if even just for a weekend. So, your challenge is to create a card that shouts summer fun! Maybe a camping trip in the forest--or a trip to the ocean for a lighthouse tour or time on the beach--or a flight to another country to see the sights--or road trip to see local attractions--or biking along the rails to trails--or ....................... you get the idea. Shows us image that highlights a summer experience you have had or are planning to do in the future. Please include some patterned paper on your card--along with an additional embellishment or two........ If you want to share on your blog post a fun experience you have had on a vacation, that would be great! We all love to hear about trips--just not all of the hundreds of slides or photos."

So for this month's challenge I used one of my House Mouse stamps.  Everytime I see this stamp, I think of hot weather and summer.  Love those cute mice laying on those ice cubes. I colored the image with Prismas and baby oil.

Stamps:  House Mouse
Cardstock:  Certainly Celery, Regal Rose, Old Olive, Whisper White
Ink: Black
Misc: Old Olive DSP, Divine Swirls embossing folder

Operation Write Home Memorial Day Sketch Blog Hop 2012

This Memorial Day weekend Operation Write Home (OWH) is having the biggest, baddest blog hop on the net.  There are over 140 blogs to visit.  For this hop each participant had to use at least one of OWHs weekly sketches to make their card.  All the sketches can be found here.  To find a list of all blogs participating in this hop, please visit the OWH blog here and it contains a InLinkz to each blog. 

OWH is an organization that provides our nation's armed forces with blank handmade greeting cards to write home on as well as "Anyhero" cards of gratitude to encourage them.  If you are interested in making cards for this great cause, please visit the Operation Write Home webite here.

For my card, I used sketch #74 and the Hero Arts OWH set, All the Time.



Stamps Sets:  Hero Arts, All the Time
Cardstock:  SU! Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip, Midnight Muse
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Misc: Half Pearls, Scalloped Border Punch

Thanks for visiting my blog.  Please go back to the OWH blog , for the full list of blogs on this hop.

VC_ROCKS Blog Hop #1 of 2012

Today VC_ROCKS is having its first blog hop of 2012.  The theme is Art from the Heart.  Each project should have at least one heart on it.  VC_ROCKS is a yahoo group made up of Stampin Up demos and non-demos to celebrate the release of the new Stampin Up catalog and  to have a virtual convention (vc) experience.  We have swaps, challenges, RAKs, games, contests, chats, Make and Takes, online classes, blog hops and more.  We are only active from mid-April until mid-August and only take new members until the end of May.  If you want more info, please visit the VC_ROCK blog at http://www.vcrocks.blogspot.com/. 

You may have arrived here from Elizabeth's blog at http://elizabethsstamproom.blogspot.com/.  If you didn't and want to start from the begining, please start at http://www.vcrocks.blogspot.com/.

My card was inspired by the Twisted Tuesdays challenge (http://twistedtuesdaychallenges.blogspot.com/) this week.  The challenge was to chain items together on your project, so I chained some hearts together to meet the blog hop theme.  I did not make my card long (which was the twist), so I did not completely follow the challenge.

Stamps:  I {Heart} Hearts, Take it to Heart, Warm Regards

Cardstock: Real Red, Basic Black, Whisper White

Ink: Real Red, Basic Black

Misc: Scalloped Border punch

To comtinue to the next blog, please visit Nancy at http://www.fancynancykay.blogspot.com/.

Crafty Gals Monthly Challenge for May 2012

I must apologize to the rest of the Crafty Gals for being two days late posting my challenge card.  Tracie was our hostess this month and here is the challenge that gave us:

"Celebrating Those Who Love Us"This month's theme celebrates those who have sacrificed so much to help us become the people we are today. This could be mothers, fathers, friends, Jesus, or anyone you'd like to celebrate! On your project, include the following:
1. At least 3 layers
2. At least 2 embellishments
3. At least 1 sentiment

Well this challenge was very emotional for me.  I initially thought I would just do a birthday card for my husband since his birthday is May 5, the day the challenge was due.  But I decided that did not really fit the theme.  The person who sacrified the most and helped make me the person I am today was my mother.  She passed away last February from Pancreatic cancer so May is a very difficult month for me these days since both Mother's Day and my birthday are both in May.  When we were cleaning out her stuff, I found some images using her favorite Stampin Up set, Terrific Tulips, that she had already stamped.  She was planning to use them to complete some Operation Write Home cards.  So I took her already stamped image and completed a card following this month's challenge.  I will complete the rest of the cards later and send them all to OWH, as she had originally planned.  I hope you enjoy my card.

Stamps:  SU! Terrific Tulips, Sincere Salutations
Cardstock: Certainly Celery, Regal Rose, Melon Mambo, Basic Black, Whisper White
Ink: Old Olive, Regal Rose, Rose Red
Embellishments: May Arts ribbon, Pearls colored black with a sharpie

Crafty Gals Blog Group Monthly Challange for April 2012

It's the fifth of the month, so that means another Crafty Gals Monthly Challenge. I am very excited to be the host for this month. Here is the challenge that I issued to the group:

"April Showers bring May Flowers"

"Since April is supposed to be a rainy month in most of the country, I thought we would try a "water" challenge. My challenge to you is to incorporate water in some way on your card. It can be rain, puddles, ocean, sea, beach, lake, bathtub or anything else you can think of. In addition to the water, I want you to use ribbon, brads and patterned paper on your card. I can't wait to see your creations and I hope you all enjoy this month's challenge."

One of my favorite current Stampin Up! sets is Open Sea, so I had to use that set for this month's challenge. The Designer Series Paper, Nautical Expedition, that I used is retired but was released at the same time as the Open Sea set and coordinates perfectly with it.



The base of the card is Cherry Cobbler. I layered it with a piece of Crumb Cake stamped with Not Quite Navy. The DSP is layered onto Not Quite Navy. I stamped the ship on Very Vanilla (even though it looks like Whisper White in the photo!) and layered it onto to Not Quite Navy. I wanted to use the ribbon in a more masculine way, so I just wrapped it around the card stock and did not make a bow. I used some blue brads to finish off the card. If you would like to see the other Crafty Gals' creations for this month, please visit their blogs. There are links to all their blogs along the right side of this page. Thanks for visiting.

Pengiuns in Springtime

This is a card I had to do for my Stamperscorner Yahoo Group COTM. The theme was penguins. So even though Spring has sprung and it is almost 70 degrees in Los Angeles today, I present you with pengiuns. I used this weeks Splitcoaststampers sketch of the week, SC377. I turned it sideways and used a stamp from Cat's Pajamas. The card base is Marina Mist cardstock. I used some patterned paper from my mile high stash for the two horizontal panels. I'm not sure who makes it but they are layered on top of Night of Navy cardstock. I also used my polka dot embossing folder and Nestibilities and half pearls to finish the card. I colored the hat, scarfs and sled with my Prismas and baby oil. I hope you enjoy the card and thanks for visiting.

Crafty Gals March Monthly Challenge

It's that time again for the Crafty Gals Blog Group's Monthly Challenge. Our fearless leader, Melina, is the hostess this month and she issued the following challenge:

"NOT LUCK......BLESSINGS!"
Okay, so this month we celebrate St. Patty's day. Well, some of us do. I never have gotten into it that much even though I have some Irish blood in me. I guess my thing is I don't believe in luck. I believe in blessings. So, I love saying "Have a blessed day" when I'm out and about on St. Patty's Day! LOL!So, my challenge for you is to create a project whatever you'd like, a card, scrap page, 3D item, etc....using these things:
1. 2 different shades of green.
2. Make the sentiment a "blessings" or "thankfulness" theme.
3. A Nature element somewhere on your creation. Examples: plant, sun, flower, grass, etc image and/or use patterned paper with plants, grass etc.....Any Natural element you can think of on your project.
I want you to really go "green" on this challenge! So for this challenge I used one of my favorite retired SU! stamp sets, Terrific Tulips. I love two-step stamps when I don't want to color. I used this weeks OWH sketch, #111, that is posted on their http://www.owhstarsandstamps.org/ website. I stamped the flowers in Melon Mambo and Regal Rose and the stems with Old Olive and Certainly Celery. I embossed a layer of Certainly Celery cardstock with the Textile Cuttlebug embossing folder and layered that onto a piece of white cardstock. I used Old Olive card stock to layered the image panel and the banners. I also used SU! DSP on the banners. The "Thank You" sentiment is from the SU! Upsy Daisy set. I used my Old Olive marker to only ink the part of the stamp that I wanted. Thank you for looking!