It’s Time for a Color Challenge

Feb 27, 2010 | Big Shot, Cards, Create with Connie & Julie, Designer Series Paper, Occasion Mini 2010, Sale-A-Bration 2010, Stem Sayings, Thank You, Watercoloring | 1 comment

Boy the week just flies by – its Saturday again and challenge day at Create with Connie & Julie!

Congratulations to last weeks winners of the Easter Card challenge – 1st place was Lisa, 2nd place was Robin and Honorable mention to Cynthia.  Thanks to everyone that played along the entries were all great.  I hope you will play this week too.

This week our challenge was a COLOR challenge – So Saffron, Certainly Celery and Orchid Opulence.  And it was definitely a challenge for me!  Why?  Because my least favorite color out of all the Stampin’ Up! colors is Orchid Opulence – so I don’t have an ink pad and only a couple of pieces of card stock – luckily I did have my Stampin’ Write Marker!     One of the big reasons that the Stampin’ Write Markers are so great – if you buy the whole set like I did then you will have ink in every color so when you need one and don’t have an ink pad – pull out the marker and you are set!  It saved me with this color challenge!

The featured items this week are from the Stampin’ Up! Occasions Mini Catalog and the Sale-A-Bration Brochure – Abundant Hope stamp set, Stampin’ Up! Beautiful Wings Embosslit, Butterfly Accent stamp and Decor Stencils – Paisley Patterns and Folk Flowers.  My choice was to use the Beautiful Wings Embosslit – because I love it and because it was the only one of the featured items that I had this week.  And here is what I created….

Are you wondering where the background is from, the flowers under the butterflies?  It is a piece from the Storybook Designer Series Specialty paper.  If you haven’t taken a look at this pack of paper on one side of each is what looks like a coloring sheet.  It is textured card stock so it was similar to watercolor paper.  I picked a piece of one of the patterns that had flowers on it so the butterflies could be flittering around the flowers.   And with no color on the design I could watercolor it with any colors that I wanted.  I used my Aquapainter and the classic ink pads.  But since I didn’t have the Orchid Opulence ink pad what I did for those was scribble on one of the plastic stamp cases to make a puddle of ink to use for watercoloring.    I always loved to color in coloring books when I was little so I had a lot of fun with this and now that I got the pack out I think I need to play some more.

I used the Beautiful Wings Embosslit in the Big Shot to cut the Butterflies in So Saffron and Orchid Opulence.  I edged the butterflies with a Soft Suede marker to make them stand out a little bit more.  I used some white crochet thread around the centers to make the antennas.  The butterflies are on Stampin’ Dimensionals.

Here is a full list of Stampin’ Up! supplies for this card:

  • So Saffron card stock and ink
  • Certainly Celery card stock and ink
  • Orchid Opulence card stock and Stampin’ Write marker
  • Storybook Designer Series Specialty paper
  • Soft Suede ink and Stampin’ Write marker
  • Sahara Sand ink
  • Stampin’ Up! Beautiful Wings Embosslit
  • Big Shot Die-Cut Machine
  • Stem Sayings stamp set
  • Scallop Trim Border Punch (SAB)
  • Aqua Painter
  • White Crochet Thread (not SU)
  • Stampin’ Dimensionals

Check out what the rest of the Create team did with this challenge:

Connie

Julie

Mary

Kerin

If you haven’t checked out the Create with Connie and Julie site yet it isn’t too late to do it! We feature new Occasions Mini product every week.  I counted today and there are at least 27 tutorials out there already. We like to have lots of fun so we have challenges and prizes for our subscribers. Our sites stay up long after the session is done so you will always have access to the site and the tutorials. For more information and to see our Preview Week projects please visit the Create with Connie and Julie site.

Thanks for stopping by today!  Happy Stampin’!

Tin of Punches

Feb 26, 2010 | Big Shot, Designer Series Paper, Punch Art, SU Ribbon | 2 comments

As it turns out when I work in my craft room on projects I usually end up with a small pile of leftover punched pieces and die cut pieces.  I hate to throw them away.  But if I keep them I don’t ever really use them, occasionally but normally I just punch or die cut what ever I need right when I need forgetting to look back at what I have done.

I also have a bunch of these little round tins that you find in the wedding section at the store.  I bought them once for a project and then bought more so now I have more than I really need.

Another Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator made the suggestion the other day that she was giving away punched pieces as a thank you.  So when I cleaned up the other day I had my little pile of punched pieces and thought about this suggestion.  I found my little tins and filled a tins with punched pieces – this one has flowers, birds, butterflies, and some other punched elements.  I added a strip of Designer Series Paper around the bottom of the tin.  Tied a piece of So Saffron Striped Ribbon around the tin and added a tag stamped with the Oval All stamp set.  The little butterfly is colored in with markers.

Come back tomorrow and you’ll see one of the projects that I was working on where some of these leftovers came from.  Some were also from one of my scrapbook pages earlier this week.  I decided that I would group the items each tin by a similar color/theme.  I have another one that has a bunch of Valentine related pieces, one with some Christmas/Holiday punches – they have been lying on my desk for a few months now (see I hate to throw them away).

I gave this tin to Becky at my scrapbook class on Wednesday night because she brought two friends with her to the class.  We had a great time and I know Becky will enjoy the little collection of punched pieces that she can use on her projects at home.

You could use the same little container and fill it with candy if you need to give it to a teacher or someone that did something nice for you and you need a little thank you.

Have a great day!

Easter Projects

Feb 25, 2010 | Big Shot, class, Create with Connie & Julie, Easter, Occasion Mini 2010, Sale-A-Bration 2010, SU Ribbon | 3 comments

At last weeks class we made three Easter projects – a pocket card/invitation, a place card/candy holder, and a candy treat bag.  Sometimes I’m just not sure what to call things.  These were made using the Eggscellant Eggs Kit in the Stampin’ Up! Occasions Mini Catalog and the Chocolate Bunny stamp.  My class photo shows the projects made with all Pretty in Pink accents.  Ok – to me these pictures don’t look as good as the other ones that I took – I was trying to use the white back drop that many people use but the lighting wasn’t so good.  I’ll have to keep working on that.

Everyone had different colors because the kit came with different colors so I decided to take photos of some of the  projects finished in the other colors:

Bashful Blue w/Certainly Celery

Pale Plum w/Whisper White

Pretty in Pink w/Certainly Celery

So Saffron w/Certainly Celery

These were fun!  I’ll be making more in all the colors for our family Easter gathering.

These three projects along with 3 more were part of a collection I created for Create with Connie & Julie.  We are in the last couple of weeks of adding new projects but everything will be available for a long time so you can still join.  So far there are 27 tutorials available along with many more projects – everything includes a full supply list and some basic instructions – so you are getting a ton of ideas for the price of the subscription.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Have Fun… Play Hard….

Feb 24, 2010 | Big Shot, Designer Series Paper, Good Friend, Scrapbook Pages | 0 comments

Have Fun, Play Hard, Be Happy!

This is my week 6 page for the 52 weeks challenge.  I pulled out some old photos from 1996!  This is Kyle (he is now 18) and Tyler (he is now 16) when they were little.

I thought this turned out to be a fun page.  I used some retired Stampin’ Up! Designer Series Paper called Rainbow Sherbet.  The colors in the paper are Tempting Turquoise, Green Galore, Apricot Appeal and Gable Green.  I decided to add Brilliant Blue for my lettering, photo frames, and scalloped accents since that was the color of the pool.  The colors worked well since the boys swim suits were blue and green too.

The stamp in the background is the sparkle image from the Good Friend stamp set.  It matches the sparkle in the designer paper.  I cut the scallop circles and the top note using the Big Shot and the letters too.  I added little accents with my Brilliant Blue Stampin’ Write maker.  I used some randomly placed brads from the Bold Bright Brads scattered around the circles and the top note just for fun.

It turned out to be a fun page with bright colors!

Thanks for stopping by today!

What Mother’s Do…

Feb 23, 2010 | Big Shot, Designer Series Paper, Occasion Mini 2010, Scrapbook Pages, Upsy Daisy, Wildlife | 0 comments

She is the shelter from the storm…

As you can tell if you have been reading my blog I spend some of my time observing the birds and animals in nature around me.  It is actually very fascinating and you can learn a lot.  Last year in May my friend and upline Wendy had a group retreat at her home.  It turned out to be a rainy weekend.  The back of Wendy’s house faces into the woods and the back porch is high off the ground and I was surprised to see on her porch a nest built on the floor next to the grill.  I kept my eye on the nest – it had four beautiful blue eggs and belonged to a Robin.

I had never really thought about it but the mama robin sat in that nest during the rain to protect her eggs.  She sat on top and spread her wings to create a shelter from the storm.  When the rain stopped she flew away to do what she needed to do.  I found it to be quite amazing the protection that she offered those eggs.

Because she was close I was able to get some great pictures of her on the nest and of the eggs.  I pulled them out and decided to put them on a scrapbook page.

This is my week 5 page for the 52 weeks of scrapbooking challenge.  (I also finished week 6 and I’ll show you that tomorrow).

I used Taken with Teal as my background to match the color of the Robin’s eggs.  I added strips of designer paper from the Sweet Pea Designer Series paper pack.  I used the Big Shot to create some accent pieces – the scalloped circle, and the flower daisies in the corner.

The new xl Two-Step Bird punch added an accent on my circle and the stems on my flowers.  The stamp set I used is Upsy Daisy. And then a piece of black satin ribbon at the top.

The Designer Paper, the bird punch and the satin ribbon are all from the Stampin’ Up! Occasions Mini Catalog.  If you haven’t tried out the ribbon you really should – I have used most of what I bought and I’m on my second roll of most of the colors.  I hope it is in our next catalog and I wish they would add So Saffron – this week for some reason I have wanted to use So Saffron ribbon more than once.

Sadly, I found out a few weeks later that while the mom did a wonderful job protecting her eggs during the storm she did not make a wise decision on the location of the nest.  Because it was on the floor of the deck it was easy for other animals to reach. I hope she tried again in a better location.

I’ll be back tomorrow with my week 6 page.