Crafty Gals Monthly Challenge - December 2012

It is time for this month's Crafty Gals Blog Group Challenge.  We did not have an official hostess this month.  We did something a little different this month.  Here is this month's challenge:

Guess Who I'm CASEing?!

"Go back to the month of March on one of the Crafty Gals blogs. (you can get there by finding their dated blog archive in their sidebar)

It doesn't matter whom you choose. That is totally up to you. That's the fun of us guessing right?!

Find a project from the month of March on their blog and CASE it. Don't list who you visited on your Dec. 5th blog post. We have to guess. This will also be kind of like a scavenger hunt. We'll want to go look at the original "artwork" you CASED so we'll be visiting March blog posts of our GALS!!!!"



I used the same layout and colors as the card that I  CASED but I changed the theme to Christmas.  Happy hunting.  

  Stamps:  Stamping Bella (image), Stamin Up! (sentiment) Cardstock:  Night of Navy, Whisper White Ink:  Cherry Cobbler Misc:  SU! Nautical Expedition and Deck the Hall DSP (both retired), Pearls

Crafty Gals Monthly Challenge

I am late posting my challange card this month.  Jackie is hostess for the month and here is the challenge that issued to us:

"Fall Blessings"

November is for Thanksgiving & we all have so many things to be thankful for so my challenge for you this month is to create a project to showcase our Blessings. It can be a card, shadowbox, picture frame, scrabook layout, mini album, etc. Please make whatever your heart desires as long as it features what you are thankful for & I also want you to use a Fall theme for your creations. I can't wait to see all of your wonderful works of art! Have Fun & Happy Stamping!!!!!

I plan to send this card to Operation Write Home.  I am thankful for many things including the health of family.  I am also thankful to our Troops who fight for our freedom everyday so I send this to OWH in hopes that one of the Troops will use it.

Stamps:  Riley, Hero Arts (sentiment)

Card Stock:  SU! More Mustard, Chocolate Chip, Crazy Cajun, Whisper White

DSP:  SU! Orchard Harvest

Operation Write Home World Card Making Day Blog Hop 2012

Welcome to the Operation Write Home World Card Making Day Blog Hop.  For this hop each participant had to use a sketch to make their card and make it holiday or winter themed.  To find a list of all blogs participating in this hop, please visit the OWH blog here. It contains a InLinkz to each blog.

Operation Write Home (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 OWH sketch #137 and new Riley stamp, Snow Globe Riley and Snowman. You can find all the past OWH sketches here.

Stamps:  Snow Globe Riley and Snowman (Riley and Company)

Cardstock:  Marina Mist, Night of Navy, Whisper White (SU!)

Misc:  Patterned Paper (Unknown source), Snowflake brads, Snowflake embossing folder

Crafty Gals Monthly Challenge - October 2012

It's time for the Crafty Gals Blog Group's monthly challenge.  This month's hostess is Athina.  Here is the challenge that issued to us this month:

"Think Outside the Box!"

"I challenge you to make a project with no squares or rectangles (not even the base of a card or scrapbook layout). Since we have already stepped outside the box, lets take another step. Try a technique that you have not tried before. It is always fun to learn something new and expand our creativity. Have fun with it! I can't wait to see what you create!"

This challenge was definitely outside of the box for me. It took me sometime to come up with an idea but after searching the internet, I found some cute cards that were shaped like cupcakes.  So I present my version of the cupcake card.

Stamps: Teeny Tiny Wishes
Cardstock:  Crumb Cake, Melon Mambo, Whisper White
Ink:  Regal Rose
DSP:  Ice Cream Parlor (SU! Retired)
Misc:  Striped Embossing Folder (SU!), Large Circle and Scalloped Circle Nestibilities, Stickles.

Crafty Gals Monthly Challenge September 2012

It is time for the Crafty Gals Blog Group's monthly challenge.  Jeanette was our hostess this month and this is the challenge that she issued to us:

“Get Punchy”

"I absolutely love creative punch art! (Have you seen my Pinterest Punch Art Board?) I know not everyone loves punch art, but I do. I also know that a lot of us don’t have many punches. Therefore I’m not going to make this challenge too difficult.

The Simple Plan: Make a card using a punch somewhere on it. Easy Peasy!

The Advanced Plan: Make a card where you use punches to make something they were not originally intended for. For example: Use oval punches to make a frog, use circle punches to make a snowman, use the stocking punch to make a stick horse, use a heart punch to make a Christmas tree, use a variety of punches to make a chef or witch or elephant, etc."


When I read her challenge I immediately thought of Sesame Street characters.  I have seen some really creative cards made with punches so I thought I would try it.  My three year-old daughter loves Elmo, so I decided to make an Elmo card.  I do plan to make Big Bird and Cookie Monster soon to send to Operation Write Home.  I hope you like my card and that it makes you smile.

Stamps:  Warmest Regards (Retired SU!)
Cardstock:  Tempting Turquoise, Pacific Point, Real Red, Pumpin Pie, Basic Black, Whisper White (SU!)
Ink:  Versafine Black
DSP:  Summer Picnic (Retired SU!)

SCS August Birthday RAK Card

I am a member of the SCS Birthday RAK group.  I make 4-6 cards each month and send them for other member's birthdays.  Here is the card I made for all my assigned August birthday girls.

Stamps:  Simply Soft, Made for You

Cardstock:  Pacific Point, Tempting Turquiose, Night of Navy, White

Ink:  Pacific Point, Certainly Celery, Black

Crafty Gals Monthly Challenge - August 2012

It's time for the monthly Crafty Gals challenge.  Carolina was our hostess this month.  Here is the challange that issued to us this month:

"Two of my son's are having birthdays this next months. Since we didn't do any b-day cards I challenge you all to do one using an animal character and four shapes of any sort somewhere in the card plus colours red and blue. Is this too much to ask???. Good luck."

Below is the card that I created for the challenge.  Hopefully it is a card that kids would like to receive.  I know that my three year-old loves giraffes.  She thinks they are all named Melman like the giraffe in the Madagascar movies.

Stamps:  In the Wild, Teeny Tiny Wishes (SU!)
Cardstock:  SU! Cherry Cobbler, Pacific Point, Crumb Cake, Whisper White
Ink:  Early Espresso, Cherry Cobbler
Misc: Stars embossing folder, Oval and Scalloped Oval punches, Rhinestones

Crafty Gals Group Monthly Challenge

It's time for the latest Crafty Gals Group Monthly Challenge.  Patty was our hostess this month.  This is the challenge she issued to us this month:

"Christmas in July!"

"It's never too early to start thinking about Christmas so let's get an early start to your holiday cards with this month's Crafy Gal's blog challenge.

Christmas in July! And since clean and simple cards are my very favorite your challenge this month is to make a clean and simple Christmas or Holiday card. "

I received a tutorial from LeeAnn Greff called Seamless Tiers that I thought would go great with this challenge using the SU! Bells & Boughs stamp set.  Enjoy.

Stamp Sets:  SU! Bells and Boughs

Card stock: Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White
Ink: Cherry Cobbler

Misc:  Cherry Cobbler Quilted Satin Ribbon (retired)



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!

Glitter Gals and Guys TOTM (almost)

I was supposed to create this card for the Glitter Gals and Guys Yahoo Group Topic of the Month swap. The theme was a baby card featuring hearts. Well guess what? I totally forgot about the hearts. So I will create one that is slightly different from this one with hearts but thought I would still show this one. I used the SU! Stitched Stockings and Little Angels (retired) stamp sets, Wisteria Wonder, Melon Mambo & Pretty In Pink cardstock and Pretty in Pink and Basic Black ink.

Crafty Gals Tuesday Challange

I have finally completed the first two Crafty Gals Tuesday Challanges. The first challenge was to use dots and the second one was to use purple and green. I have combined them both. I used the Stampin Up! Perfectly Polka Dot embossing folder for the dots. I used Certainly Celery, Old Olive, Wisteria Wonder, Concord Crush and Whisper White card stock, Certainly Celery ink and the Elementary Elegance Sale-a-Bration stamp set.

Crafty Gals February 2012 Challenge

It's time for another Crafty Gals Blog Group Monthly Challange. This month Lela issued the following challange:

"February is the month of LOVE and what could be better than showing off our idea of a "ReCipE for A VaLEntiNE". Last year DH made me chocolate dipped strawberries. He found the recipe on-line and they were fabulous. It was wonderful but a surprise as usually he gets me roses. What makes the perfect VaLEntiNE surprise? Is it candy, flowers, love notes? Let's see your ReCipE for sharing LOVE. Don't forget to add a Heart or 2 on our project."

I have such a sweet tooth, so I had to choose candy. I have this cute image from Great Impressions that is a candy jar full of candy hearts. I love using it for Valentine's card. I hope you like it.

Stamps: Great Impressions
Cardstock: SU! Melon Mambo, Regal Rose, Basic Black, Whisper White
Misc: Target patterned paper, Prisma pencils

Elementary Elegance

This is a card that I made for one of my Yahoo group swaps. I have finally inked up my SU! SAB set, Elementary Elegance and used my Twitterpatered DSP.
Stamp Set: Elementary Elegance

Cardstock: Basic Gray, Basic Black, Regal Rose, Melon Mambo, Whisper White

Ink: Regal Rose

Misc: Twitterpattered DSP, pearls, Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder

Paris, Paris

I had to make two cards that were both Paris themed for my Inkyfunstampers and Stampers Corner Yahoo groups. I made them very similar with just a few mods.

CARD #1:
CARD #2:

All supplies are Stampin Up! unless noted.

Stamps: Paris in Spring, French Script Background, Print Pattern Background

Cardstock: Basic Gray, Basic Black, Regal Rose, Melon Mambo
Ink: Basic Black, Pretty in Pink

Misc: Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder, Recollection Black Glitter Brads

Skiing Cat

As I post this card, it is 75 degrees outside but since this is how I image winter is like in most of the country, this is my Happy Winter card for today. This is the card that I going to send for my Glitter Girls and Guys Yahoo Group Card of the Month. The main image is from Cat's Pajamas. The sentiment is from DRS Designs (I think!). For the small amount of coloring that I did, I used gel pens. The sentiment was stamped with Brilliance Pearlescent Sky Blue.

Crafty Gals January Challenge

This month, Heather posted the following January challenge "As mentioned, I am expecting my first baby at the end of February. We're pretty excited to celebrate this new addition and new stage in our lives. My challenge to you for the Crafty Girls January challenge is to celebrate NEWNESS ....it doesn't have to be a new baby...perhaps it's a New Year, new marriage, new job, new friend, etc. In addition, use the opportunity to try a out a new technique (or template, something you haven't tried before).

I decided to use one of my newest Hero Arts/Operation Write Home stamp sets. I used the "All The Time" set. I love to use clocks, so I was excited to get this set.

I used SU! Not Quite Navy for the card base. I mounted the DSP (SU! Letters from Santa) on Chocolate Chip card stock. I took another piece of Chocolate Chip card stock and used the scalloped punch. I stamped the clock image onto a piece of Crumb Cake card stock with Not Quite Navy and cut it out and mounted it with Stampin Dimensionals.