Sweet Sunday 45

Here is my Sweet Sunday card for this week. I had to dig through all my Xmas stamps to find one that I thought would work with this sketch and that I hadn't yet used this year. I'm sure glad I found this guy.

Here are the card details:

Paper: SU Holiday Lounge DP, SU real red and some sparkly white paper from my stash.
You may want to click on the picture to see how sparkly it is.

I double stamped the penquin image from Sudio G (Michael's), colored both with my copics, embossed the second one with clear embossing powder, cut it out and popped it on dimensionals over the original. I cut the original with a nestie inverted scallop circle and backed that with a nestie regular scallop circle cut out of the red dp. I used my CB dots embossing folder on the sparkly white behind the image and trimmed the bottom of that piece with my MS icicle punch. I just love that punch for Xmas trim, as you can tell with a number of my other recent posts:)

The sentient is from a "Recollections" clear acrylic set called "Merry, Merry". It's a long border stamp that I embossed on real red with Zing white embossing powder. I used the SU word window punch to punch just part of the border to make my sentiment. I mounted that on more sparkly white paper punched with one of the new SU label punches. Finally, the pretty red striped ribbon was some that I found in my Xmas ribbon stash.

I liked how this turned out so I think I will make a few more for Xmas this year. Thanks for stopping by:))

Sweet Sunday 44

Okay, so it's Sweet Sunday after Mojo Monday this week. I just had to think a while on Karen's sketch this week. I also struggled to get a decent photo as it is overcast today and I couldn't get my lighting right on this shiny background paper. It really is a pretty shade of teal blue, even though the picture shows some greener cast in it.


Here are the details:
The DP is SU's Designer Holiday Lounge, the tan is Bazzill and the shiny blue/teal is from a DCWV cardstock stack called "Citrus". It matches so perfect with the DP. The image is from a clear acrylic set from Inkadinkadoo called "Christmas Characters" and is stamped with SU Taken With Teal ink. I added just a little gray shading with my copics and cut out the image with a nestie label. The circle DP was cut out with my Making Memories cutting tools.

I ran the strip of shiny blue on the bottom through my cuttlebug twice using the dots embossing folder and then added the white borders punched with my EK success wave punch. I stamped the "Merry Christmas" with the teal ink, punched it out and backed it with two more punched circle/scallop pieces, then added the silver brad to the center. Finally, I punched a hole in the center of a ghost snowflake, added a snowflake brad to it and mounted it with a glue dot. Oh, and I did add some little rhinestones to a few snowflakes around the image. The nestie and sentiment are popped with dimensionals. This is one very shiny card. Hope you like it.

Sweet Sunday 43

Wow! Could it really be Sweet Sunday 43 already? I remember doing Karen's first Sweet Sunday sketch and it seemed like yesterday. I've only missed a few of Karen's sketches when life was just too busy.

I've been waiting for a sketch like this so I could ink up this cute Penny Black image. I'm still a beginner with these copics, and I don't have all the colors I would like yet, so please bear with me. I'm definitely going to have my own style.

Here are the card details:

Both DPs are Bo-Bunny and I love them together. The blue paper is SU's Baja Breeze and the brown is Bazzill. I double stamped the Penny Black image so I could cut out the Santa face on the second image and pop it over the original. I used a nestie to cut out the image and then backed it with the Baja Breeze which I handcut. The border is MS's icicle border punch. I punched that out of some scrap glitter paper. To finish it off I added a Heidi Swapp ghost snowflake. On top of that I layered a snowflake punched with a MS punch from glitter paper and put a heart brad through the center of both. The image and snowflake are both popped on dimensionals.

Thanks for stopping by to take a peek.

Sweet Sunday 41

Here is my take on this week's Sweet Sunday challenge. It turned out to be a rather shimmery sparkly card after all was said and done and I got to use a few new nesties that I recently picked up.

Here are the details:

My shimmer blue and white paper are from Archivers. The snowman and sentiment are from Stampendous Snowplace clear acrylic set and the tree is from Recollections Winter Wonderland clear acrylic set. The background stars and dots is from The Angel Company. I colored the snowman and tree with some new copics markers that I recently picked up. I'm slowly getting accustomed to them. I added some glitter to the stars in the background, colored the star on the tree with my yellow Spica pen and added some Sparkly Fluff to the snowman's earmuffs and below the snowman and tree for snow. I love how easy that fluff is to use, even on small areas. Then I added some Kaiser red pearls to the tree for ornaments, cut out the stamped scene with a nestie, sponged the edge with Adirondack Stonewashed blue and mounted it over 2 layers of shimmer paper that I texturized with CB dots and snowflakes embossing folders. The sentiment was stamped, embossed with versa mark and SU irredescent ice, punched out with a circle punch, sponged with blue ink on the edges and backed with blue that was cut with another new nestie. I mounted both nesties with dimensionals.

Thanks for stopping by again. I'm off to carve pumpkins and then on to my Mojo challenge for this week.

Sweet Sunday 34

Here is my Sweet Sunday card...a bit late this week due to my mini-vacation over the weekend.
This was a bit hard to photograph with all the silver on it especially at night. You may want to click on the photo to get a better look at the image. I made this card for my son's wedding anniversary, which is tomorrow.

Here are the details:

The DP is from The Paper Company, the shiny silver is from my local scrapbook store and isn't identified by company, the black is from my scraps and the pink is SU. The main image is Stampabilities and the sentiment is SU. Both are stamped with black pigment ink and embossed with clear embossing powder. The silver strip behind the image was embossed with a CB embossing folder. The borders behind that strip are punched with a MS punch. The main image is cut out and backed with nesties. Finally, I used some Hero Arts clear gemstones for a few of the champagne bubbles and then colored the rest of the bubbles in with my gel glitter pen. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Now to quick finish off the inside and the envelope so I can drop it off tomorrow.

Sweet Sunday 33 - Popped Candy Corn

Here is my take on Karen's Sweet Sunday challenge for this week. I'm trying to get all my Halloween cards done because we are going on vacation in 2 weeks so I won't have much time to do them after that.

Here are the card details:

The orange paper is Basic Grey, the brown is Bazzill, and the DP stripe was borrowed from a friend so I don't have the brand name for you. I used a CB embossing folder on the orange for texture. The candy cane tree, owl and sentiment are from and acrylic set by Impression Obsession. I double stamped the image with Memento ink and colored in the candy cane with SU markers and the tree, grass and pumpkin with prismacolor pencils. I clear embossed the second image, cut out all of the candy corns, the owl and pumpkin and popped them on dimensionals over the original image. By the way, there are 58 little candy corns on the tree...thus proving, once again, I am the Queen of Pop:))) Finally, I added more of those crystal candy corns down the left side of the card with glue dots.

We have been having some great cool weather this week with temps barely getting to 70 degrees. It's been great for late August and early September when we usually have hot, hot, humid weather. Fall is definitely in the air.

Sweet Sunday 31

Woohoo, Sweet Sunday on Monday! I've been waiting for a sketch that I could fit this stamp into and along comes Karen with the perfect one for me! Thanks Karen! This card is for my friends who are avid Packer fans and waited some 20+ years to finally get some season tickets a few years back. They have a family room in their basement dedicated to the Pack, so I know she's just going to love this card. Last year she told me that she uses my Xmas cards to decorate her tree every year. Now that is a card worthy friend!!

Here are the card details:

The Packer Paper is by Scrappin' Sports and the cardstock is SU's Handsome Hunter and Marigold. The sentiment is from a "Close to My Heart" acrylic set called "Christmas Scripts".

These guys do look like a bunch of snowflakes, dressed up in their green and gold:)) I stamped and colored them with my prismacolor pencils. Then I cut them with a nestie and stamped over the whole thing with versa mark and embossed with SU's irridescent ice powder to make it look snowy. I punched out some tiny snowflakes and added them to the nestie and the sentiment.

The green background piece is embossed with a CB folder and so is the yellow/gold piece. Hope you enjoy it, even it you aren't a Packer fan:))

Sweet Sunday 30

Woohoo...is there hope for me yet? It's only Monday and I already did my Sweet Sunday sketch challenge! I've been waiting for a sketch to come along that I could use these Judith stamps on. This one is nearly perfect for it. I did alter the bottom a little so I could fit in my sentiment.

Here are the card details:

The red paper is SU Real Red. The glitter paper is from "The Paper Company" and is called "White Glimmer". The shiny blue paper is some from my scrap pile. I stamped the snowman twice and the fence once, colored each with my prismacolor pencils and gamsol. I cut out and popped the nose and legs on dimensionals and mounted the snowman on the fence and then onto a nestie. I outlined the nestie with some red paper which I cut free hand. The nestie is popped on dimensionals on top of more glimmer paper that I embossed with my CB snowflakes embossing folder. I tied some irridescent thread to 3 tiny blue buttons and used them as accents on the bunny's arm and leggs. The snowflake was punched out of shiny blue paper with my new MS snowflake punch and then embellished with a rhinestone in the center. I added a small heart brad from my stash and then I added some glitter to his hat. Finally, I stamped my sentiment banner from "Recollections" with versa mark and then embossed it with real red EB powder and popped it up on dimensionals. I hope you can tell from the picture how sparkly this card is, if now, just click on the picture for a closer look. One more Xmas card done:))

Sweet Sunday 28

Here is this weeks Sweet Sunday card. I tipped the sketch on it's side so it would work better with the image I wanted to use. I've included a close up of the snowman so you can see how sparkly he is.

Here are the details:
I started with a base of shiny blue cardstock that came from my stash, layered a piece of baby blue paper next and then embossed a piece of vellum with my CB dots embossing folder to go on top of it so it would look like snow. I added some blue ribbon from my stash and a strip of the shiny blue paper that was embossed with my CB snowflakes embossing folder.

The image and sentiment come from a new set I just picked up at Michael's that is made by "Recollections". I'm the biggest sucker for snowmen of any type and I love this little guy.
I first cut out my circle with a nestie. I double stamped the image, versa marked over both and then embossed with SU irridescent ice embossing powder to give the whole thing a snowy look.
I cut out the scarf and stars on the second image and mounted them with pop dots over the original image. I did the same embossing method on the "let it snow" sentiment. Then I added a cluster of snowflakes to which I added some glittered pearl centers. I added a blue rhinestone to the center of the snowflake on the sentiment circle and some bigger glittered pearls around the top of the snowman to make it look like he is juggling snowballs. At least that was my intention:)) Finally, I used my EK Success corner punch to add a little frame to the scene.
This card was hard to photograph with all the shiny glittery stuff going on, but I came pretty close to the actual card color in the end.

Update: I broke down and made one adjustment to this card after I originally posted it. I added the cross ribbon on the bottom because I just couldn't deal with the wide open space on the left side of this card. tee hee It breaks with the original sketch somewhat, but I like it much better

Sweet Sunday 26

At last, here is my take on Karen Sweet Sunday sketch for this week. I've been thinking about doing this all week and just finally sat down to get it done. I had to flip the sketch to make it work for this card. I made this card for my martini lovin' sister.

Here are the details:

The stamps and sentiment are from a set called "Merry Christmas" by MFT (My Favorite Things). The martini glasses were stamped on polyshrink plastic, colored with colored pencils and shrunk with a heating gun. I partly colored my image with prismacolor pencils and gamsol to blend and paper pieced the chair, floor and wrapping paper. I double stamped the image so I could cut out the tree, the person, the wrapping paper, the ribbon spool and the packages. I put the packages up on dimensionals and added some kaiser red pearls for the Xmas balls. I punched two pink corner pieces with an EK success punch and added a MS border punch of scallops and circles. The sentiment and image are popped on dimensionals as well. All of the paper was from my stash of scraps.

Gotta run and get this posted before the deadline. Hope you enjoy it!

Sweet Sunday 23

Here is my take on the latest Sweet Sunday sketch challenge. You might want to click on this to see the images close up.

I get a bit nervous when I see an unconventional sized card, but when I saw this sketch I couldn't help but see that it was perfect for the stamp set I just bought called "Its a dogs life" by Inkadinkadoo. I wanted to do a card for my brother and sister-in-law, who just got a new puppy. Animals have been a huge part of their family for some time now and they have always had a bunch of them at once...cats and dogs. We recently received an email with pictures of the latest addition so I thought I would fire off this card to them.

Here are the card details:

All of the paper is from my stash. I stamped, colored, embossed and punched out the image squares for the bottom of the card and then I mounted them on black paper and put the 3 dog pictures up on dimensionals. The two pictures with bones on them were mounted flat to the background. The Woof ribbon was part of my stash too. I printed the sentiment off of my computer, sponged the edges and punched it out with the SU word window punch, added a couple of black rhinestones to it then mounted it with dimensionals. Lastly, I pierced the paper on either side of the ribbon for accent.

Thanks for the great sketch Karen. My biggest problem will be finding an envelope to mail it in:))

Sweet Sunday 22

Here is my take on the Sweet Sunday 22 sketch this week.

Do you have a very favorite picture of your mother? Well, from early in my childhood, ever since I saw this picture in a family photo album, it has been my fav. My mom was just 18 years old on this high school graduation picture. This card is for her 80th birthday which will be on July 4, 2010. I always tell people that I have the best mom in the world and that she is a real saint. Well, I've sort of given her a halo of pearls around her picture on this card.

Here are the details: I printed the picture on white cardstock and then embossed it about 5 times with versa mark and clear embossing power to give it a glassy look. I mounted it on a black scallop that was cut from a nestie. The DP is from Kaiser Craft and is 2 sided. The white flourish was along the side the striped side of the paper which worked out perfect for this challenge. The black is linen from Archiver's. I embossed the SU pale plum with a CB folder. The sentiment is from Inkadinkado "Garden Flowers" clear acrylic set and the flourish above and below the sentiment is from Memory Box "Vintage Garden" clear acrylic set. The border punch is MS. Lastly, I added 3 clear rhinestones on a few flowers along the bottom DP.

Thanks Karen for a sketch that inspired me to create this. Hope I can actually save it for her birthday next year and don't break down and give it to her this year instead:))

Sweet Sunday 21

Well, here I am again just squeaking this entry in under the wire for the Sweet Sunday challenge. I'm dedicating this card to my blogger friend, Karen Motz, over at the Paper Playhouse blog. She is an amazing stamper and has kept good on her vow to do one Xmas card a week this year. I always look forward to seeing it and I keep telling her that it is starting to get me motivated to dig out the Xmas stamps and get going on my cards too. Well, here it is, June, and I'm finally motivated! Hey, that's about 5 months earlier than my norm! Anyway, thanks a whole bunch Karen for the motivation and inspiration I get from you everytime I visit your blog. I'm in all of your outstanding talent in card making!

Now for my card. I puzzled over what to use as an image and then I saw this new cardinal stamp from Memory Box (purchased at a local Scrapbook store) staring at me so thought I should try a Xmas in June card with it. These two SU DP's (riding hood red and kiwi kiss) were at the top of my stash of paper and they were the perfect match for my cardinal. The solid green is also kiwi kiss.

Here are the card details: I punched the squares with my 1 inch Emaginations punch, embossed my white cardstock with the "Birds and Swirls" CB embossing folder, stamped my image 3 times with black pigment ink and embossed it with clear embossing powder. Then I colored in all 3 images using my prismacolor pencils and gamsol to blend. I embossed over the 2nd and 3rd images with clear embossing powder and versamark to make them nice and shiny and easier to cut out. I cut out and layered one of the cardinals over my original with dimensionals. Then I cut out just the wing and layered that on top the second image for more depth. I colored in the leaves with kiwi kiss and an aqua pen. I stamped extra leaves to add to the sentiment that I printed on my computer and punched out with the SU word window punch. I just love adding sentiments this ways. A little sponging around the edges is all it needs to set it off. I used some "Rhine Studs" I got from Michaels for the holly berries and the corner accents. That's a nesties label behind the cardinal that I just tipped sideways for a different look. All in all, I'm pretty happy with how this turned out. Hope you enjoy it and maybe take away a little motivation to get a jumpstart on Xmas too:))

Thanks for another great sketch Karen!

Sweet Sunday #20

Here is my take on this weeks "Sweet Sunday Challenge". I can't believe Karen is on #20 already. I remember doing her very first sketch challenge and it seems like it was just yesterday. I rotated the sketch this week so it would be better suited to my image stamp.

Card details:
I used SU's bayou blue and kiwi kiss with a DP from S.E.I. The bayou blue is embossed with the branches CB embossing folder. The image is a clear set made by Hero Arts for Archivers. I triple stamped the birdie, colored all three with SU ink and an aqua pen, then cut out one, embossed it with clear embossing powder and popped it with dimensionals over the first image. I embossed the 3rd birdie and just cut out the wing and popped that on top of the second birdie to give even more dimension. I colored in the flowers and leaves with an aqua pen and SU matching ink and then added green gemstones to the 3 bigger flowers. Finally, I added the 4 brads, paper pierced around the outer edges of the DP and the birdie image, added some small black dots to every other branch of the embossed blue pieces, doodled around the white rectangle that my image is stamped on and hand wrote the sentiment. Click on the picture for a close up look at the 3D birdie and the little black dots I added to the branches on the blue embossed paper.

A fun little sketch challenge! Hope you like it!

Sweet Sunday 19

Sweet Sunday on Tuesday. Isn't that how it goes when you have a gorgeous Holiday weekend?
This is my take on this weeks sketch. I cheated a bit in the end adding some extra layers to help pop the images off that Paper Studio DP. I think I'm starting to get my mojo back and will try to tackle the Mojo Monday sketch tomorrow. I've just been having so much fun getting caught up on everyone elses blogs. It's so much fun to see what you've all been up to over the last few weeks. There is always so much more going on in the spring and summer that it's hard to keep up with everything. Anyway, hope you are all enjoying great summer like weather. I'm happy for every day that has sun and no snow!

Here are the details for my card: DP is The Paper Studio, black linen from Archivers, white from my stash and Groovy Guava from SU. I used 3 CB embossing folders, 2 of which were border folders. For the border folders, I brayered SU pumpkin in the folders before I embossed them on the white paper. I embossed dots on the edges of the flower border. I stamped the fruit from SU's Tart and Tangy stamp set, heat embossed them with Dazzle Versa Mark, cut and popped them with dimensionals and then added the tiny Basic Grey buttons to the centers. I really like how the border folders turned out with the brayering. I'm definitely going to be doing more of that. Inks I used were SU ruby red, pumpkin pie and Archival's bannana.

Thanks Karen for another great sketch! I'm really trying hard to find the "Clean and Simple" girl inside me, but it ain't easy:))))

Sweet Sunday 13

Hope everyone had a great Easter weekend. I consider it great because we had to travel and we didn't have snow!! Not even one drop of percipitation the whole weekend. Dare I hope to say that Spring has finally arrived in Wisconsin? I'm crossing my fingers:)))

Here is my take on the Sweet Sunday 13 sketch challenge for this week. I really do like this sketch and knew right away which DP I wanted to pull out for my card. I had everything figured out pretty quick except what my stamped image would be. I pretty much decided that I wanted to showcase the sentiment, but exactly how was a bit of a struggle. I am happy with how it turned out though.

Here are the details...the polka dot DP is from "The Paper Patch", the floral DP is "Creative Imaginations (Grandma Rocks), the brown is Bazzill and the red is SU rose red. I embossed the red bottom piece with my Cuttlebug stylized flowers embossing folder. All the stamps are from Inkadinkadoo clear acrylic sets. For the polka dot flowers, I stamped a flower image on my polka dot DP, embossed it twice using versa mark and clear embossing powder, cut them out then added brown brads and popped them with dimensionals. I added the brown dotted ribbon from my stash, a corner punched from the polka dot DP and the SU filigree brad that I just got in my last SU order. The ink is SU basic brown.

Not bad, it's barely Monday and I'm done with my Sunday card:)) Thanks Karen for a great sketch to start off the week!

Sweet Sunday 12

Okay, so this Sweet Sunday sketch was very basic, but I think I might have gone a bit overboard with it. I just don't do well with wide open spaces:) Something makes me want to fill them in.

I knew the instant I saw the sketch what paper I wanted to use and I figured out pretty quickly how I wanted to layer it. But then came all the embellishments. I nearly stopped before adding the blue branches and the butterfly but something just urged me on.

That gorgeous DP is from My Mind's Eye. I just love all their paper! The solid blue is the backside of the polka dot DP, so the inside of my card has that great polka dot pattern...a bonus, I think. The sentiment is SU and the flourishes are from a clear acrylic set by Impression Obsession. The butterfly is from an acrylic set by Inkadinkado. The inks were Velvet and Rustic Red from TAC and SU Baja Breeze. I added some crystal gemstones from Hero Arts to the flourishes for accent, a WeR glitter brad for the center of the flower and the blue branches punched with MS branch punch. The flowers were from my stash.

Thanks again Karen for the great challenge! I probably made this one much harder than it should have been:)

One challenge down...onward to Mojo Monday!

Sweet Sunday 11

This is a cute little sketch for the Sweet Sunday challenge this week. Only my second time ever for a butterfly card. I could really get into them, I think. I wanted to go big with my butterfly and when I spotted this DP I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I have a gorgeous butterfly stamp that I've had for a long time. I don't know who made it because it was unmounted when I got it. Anyway, I stamped the butterfly right onto my DP and then I embossed it, using the new Dazzling Versa Mark that I just bought online. The DP was already glittery, but wow, did the embossing ever pop out the color. I don't think you can get the full effect from my photo, but trust me, this is one beautiful butterfly! I cut out the butterfly and amazingly I didn't cut off an antenna. I think the embossing helped stabilize the paper so it was easier to cut the detail. I mounted the butterfly with some sticky zip strips and pulled up the wings for dimension.

I used my nestabilities for the background butterfly frames, added some white flowers from my stash with glittered brads (Spare Parts) for the centers, added pearls to accent the scallop border (Stampin' Up) and added some pearls to the body of the butterfly. The DP is DCWV and the pink papers are both My Mind's Eye. The blue cardstock is a textured piece from my stash. The butterfly tail is from a Hero Arts acrylic stamp set and the sentiment is from a Cloud9 Design acrylic stamp set. The ribbon is The Paper Studio's orange polka dot.

I never made a card with these dimensions before. Now I have to find an envelope to fit it.

Thank you Karen for challenging me to create another first! It was fun.

Sweet Sunday #10

Here is my take on the Sweet Sunday challenge for this week. I used one of my brand new MFT stamp sets for this card that I want to send to my sister for Easter with her package of chocolate.

I started out by stamping the chair and footstool on a pink print by Imaginisce so I could add that over my original stamped image. Then I stamped and colored the image with my Prismacolor pencils and gamsol. I added those cute chocolate pearls by Kaiser Scrapbook to my box of chocolates and also added the larger ones down the right side of the card. I popped the stamped image on dimensionals to give the card some more depth and added some ribbon I got from Michael's. I also added some hot pink brads to the sentiment because it looked a little bare. The border punch is Martha Stewart. The solid brown is Bazzill, the pink is ColorMates, the print floral/paisley is Basic Grey and the striped paper is Heidi Grace.

This was a fun sketch that I will probably use again. I absolutely adore Karen's card this week! It really inspired me. Thanks again Karen.

Sweet Sunday 9

Three days of sitting around the TV after my surgery was driving me bonkers! I finally broke down and had my hubby bring a bunch of my craft stuff down into the kitchen so I could create.

A simple sketch with lots of possibilities this week. I have a pile of birthday's coming up in April and May so thought I would take this opportunity to tackle one of them.

I had a little trouble getting a true color on this photo. The solid colors I used were Certainly Celery and Almost Amethest. The patterned piece is Susan Branch. My photo turned out more blue than the periwinkle color it should be.

The stamp is Penny Black. I used a Cuttlebug embossing folder on the Certainly Celery piece. I also added some crystal laquer to the candles, icing and the frog's eyes and tux. I cut the circle and scallop with my Nestabilities dies and double stamped the image so I could cut one out and pop it over the other. I did the coloring with my Prisma colored pencils and blended with gamsol.

The inside will say "Don't worry, it'll be a piece of cake for you!"

Thanks Karen for jump starting me with another great sketch!