Giveaway Day!

Remember that giveaway I mentioned a week or so ago? Well, today is the day!!

All you need to do is go to the Etsy Greetings Team blog and leave a comment on the post with my giveaway! I will pick one winner randomly and announce it on Saturday morning!

Thanks for playing! :)

Hocus Pocus

This week's Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge was to make something Halloween-y based on the movie "Hocus Pocus." I've never seen this movie but the responses I've seen about it made me put it in my Netflix queue. Too bad it isn't available to "play now"...

It is funny, or not, depending on how you look at it...Halloween, though not even here yet, feels over! Being a cardmaker, I'm pretty much at least one holiday ahead of the one that is closest, lol. I think I finished my Halloween cards in early September and have moved on to Christmas - full speed ahead!!

My challenge within a challenge was to make a Halloween card out of whatever was still out in the scrap pile - not allowed to pull out anything that had been put away for the year. Luckily I had a sentiment stamp set out that had a Happy Halloween greeting and one set that has fall leaves/Halloween images. The rest of the card is a hodge podge of paper scraps and cute stamped images. I'm really happy with how it came out and look forward to making a bunch of cards from the scrap pile. That will be my own personal challenge from now on!
Supplies:
Stamps - Inkadinkado
Ink - PTI
Paper - SU!, DCWV, Paper Source
Punch - Fiskars

Verve Release Day

Last week was sneak peek week (say that fast three times...) at Verve for the big release party on Friday night. All week long, we were treated to wonderful peeks at Julee and the other designers' creations with 7 (!) new stamp sets. Part of the fun that Julee's come up with for release week is a 5-layout (or color combination) challenge. The cards in the photo below were my entries:

The card in the front is my favorite of the bunch. I used the Dutch Girl packet from Cosmo Cricket which matched perfectly with the Papertrey Ink Aqua Mist paper and the Riding Hood Red paper from Stampin' Up! I was trying to get away from holiday cards but I just think those colors look holiday. Meh, what can you do? I am really happy with how they came out no matter how I use them. You can see them up close at my Splitcoast Gallery.

Friday night's release party was crazy - those things move so fast, I don't know how to keep up! But, I ended up winning two stamp sets and can't wait to get them! Thanks, Julee, for being such an inspiration - I love your sets and they send such an amazing message!

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #18

Wow, two color challenges in one week - color me one happy camper! Ba dump dump! :) I was excited to see this and challenged myself to make something other than a holiday card. Don't get me wrong, I love the holidays! But, I've been so preoccupied between deciding what cards we were going to choose for our own this year (making them is a whole other thing!), and getting cards made for the shop, I needed a bit of a break this week. Voila!

I had a bit of a hard time getting the layout determined for this card with a few wrong turns along the way. I'm pretty happy with how it came out and finally found a use for those pink Pima flowers I've had knocking around for a while. Yay! And, I can't finish this post without saying just how much I love the Beautiful Blooms stamp set from Papertrey Ink - use it all the time!

Supplies:
Stamps - On Your Birthday - SU!, Beautiful Blooms - PTI
Cardstock - Kraft, Chocolate Chip - SU!, Raspberry Fizz, White - PTI
Ink - Glorious Green - SU!, Black, Tea Dye - PTI
Nestabilities - Labels 8
Misc - Pima flowers, Fiskars border punch, Hero Arts pearls

Our Christmas Cards!

It is always so exciting to come up with the card to send friends and family for Christmas. For years I have purchased said cards and loved every minute of it. Last year was the first year I actually sat down to make them (my SU consultant had been trying to get me to do them for years prior, lol) and had a blast. What to make to follow the success of that card? It took several tries (and the holly I'm featuring for the giveaway was a close 2nd) and we finally decided on this one...



REMOVED FOR PUBLICATION
(if this keeps up, I'm going to need a graphic...)



I am just in love with the stamp set from Waltzing Mouse and the paper from Cosmo Cricket. Too cute!!

My Bear!

This week's CSCC is a color challenge based on "Finding Nemo." What's not to love? I love, love, love that movie and I love, love, love color challenges! :) This movie is about adventure and relationships and I've been loving (can I say "love" more in one post?) the adventure of life that my husband and I are on. What a blessed journey!

This week is Glen's birthday. For whatever reason, I have not managed to get birthdays, anniversaries, etc, on the calendar in a way that I will remember to make cards for the people that are important to us! Note to self, you really must figure that one out - desk pad? Hang one up next to the craft table? Anyway... Glen was on a motorcycle ride yesterday so I wrapped his gifts and all of a sudden it dawned on me that I didn't have a card yet. I don't usually like tying personal cards into a challenge format but sometimes it is a good way to get the crafty juices flowing. The birthday card I made Glen was a wonderful departure from all of the holiday cards I've been making lately for my shop and upcoming fair:

This card features the navy blue, aqua, white, and two variations of the salmon/orange - a pale version on the designer paper and the twine, and a deeper version in the buttons. I sure hope he likes it!

Supplies:
Verve - Beautiful You stamp set
SU! - Brilliant Blue cardstock and ink
PTI - Aqua Mist cardstock and ink, white cardstock
DCWV - Be Mine Stack
Twine - Martha Stewart
Nestabilities - Labels 8
Buttons from my stash

Giveaway!

I'm so thrilled to be a part of the Etsy Greetings Team - a wonderful group of artists I have the pleasure of being inspired by every day!

At the end of this month, the 28th to be exact, I will be featuring the following giveaway on the Etsy Greetings Team blog:

This little set I made features one card and four coordinating gift tags (the front and back of the tags are shown above.) Make sure you check it out!

Back in the Game!

Or games? Dunno but I think my crafty mojo is coming back! I've been away from the "studio" (or office or dining room...) for a while and got to spend last night and some of this evening reacquainting myself with my stamps and paper and ink! Ahh, feels good!

So, this week I wanted to make a point to play along with the Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge - it has just been too long! This week's movie is "Elizabeth: the Golden Age" and wow, did I love Cate Blanchett in that! Well, I love her in everything. I have to say that, as far as films go, I liked the first one better, but I thought Cate was amazing in this one and who doesn't love Clive Owen? I'm just sayin'...

Anyway, the requirement was to use a crown and I just got these great crown stamps from Etsy so figured it was the perfect time to get them inky. I loved the designer paper, too, reminded me of brocade fabric, and the glitter...well, they didn't call it the "golden age" for nothing, right? ;)

Supplies:
Stamps - Terbearco (Etsy Shop)
Paper and ink - PTI
DP - DCWV
Glitter - my stash
Nestabilites - Labels 8

The First Christmas Card

This week has been stressful - my sister found out her cat, Sampson, had lymphoma and had to put him to sleep Friday. Needless to say I haven't felt much in the crafty spirit. I did break out some supplies and tried to made the first of several Christmas cards. I'm not really in love with any of them right now but there seems to be some time to get them right.

This card was made for Mojo Madness 107 - a great weekly challenge by the wonderful designers at Verve.

I'd write more but we are off to see "Star Wars in Concert" - a fun evening with my hubby and pretty nerdy to boot, just like us! :)

World Card Making Day 2009!

Even though this post is a bit late, I celebrated World Cardmaking Day (10/3/09) by making this card for my wonderful hubby!

I was inspired by Dawn McVey's Color Challenge and once I found the patterned paper with the aqua print, I was off and running.

This past week has been hectic - work travel, and lots of stuff going on at work and home - just feeling really busy. Saturday was no exception as we were going to meet my family in Berkeley for the USC vs. Cal football game. Okay, we live in SF but I went to USC so I am always happy to cheer for my boys live whenever they come this way. I made the mistake of holding onto all 5 tickets and thought we could just call and meet up whenever/wherever. As the day wore on - the game started at 5pm - I started to get more worked up over where and when we would meet and how we would find them and all that jazz. Well, as you all know, whenever one half gets nervous or stressed, it is very normal for the other half to get nervous as well. Anyway, Glen was a champ! Even texting me that he loved me "ALWAYS" from the barber shop as he was getting his hair cut. Awe... Anyway, our love story is precious to me and he is my rock.

This is the first card I've actually made for Glen and I think he was touched. Even though I have an Etsy shop, the most inspired cards I've made have been those with people in mind. The love and friendships I have in my life mean so much to me and, well, that is what life is all about isn't it? :)

Supplies -
Stamp Set - PTI
Paper - SU!, DCWV
Ink - SU!
Embossing Powder - PTI
Misc - Cuttlebug, Nestabilities, Ribbon (Amazon.com)