Limelight is Turning One!

I am sorry that I don't have a better picture, but I took this pretty early this morning before work. I made this jr. padfolio for a co-worker. She is going to have her pre-schooler give this to her teacher as an end-of-the-year gift! I thought I could easily work in Limelight Papercraft's Six Chicks Sketch. The product focus this time around is patterned paper. Since I just got this October Afternoon Ducks in a Row from Mandy at Limelight, I thought it would be perfect to cut into and cut into it I did. I cut up 5 sheets the first time opening it! That has to be a record for me!

But really my message for today is that Limelight is turning 1 and Mandy is planning some FUN STUFF! I was first turned on to Limelight during the last World Card Making Day! Mandy really knows how to throw a party and is super generous! She offers great products and excellent customer service. You just can't go wrong with Limelight! Check it out today!

Here are the specifics for my project:

Stamps: Much Appreciated
Paper: Summer Sun, Regal Rose, Whisper White, October Afternoon Ducks in a Row
Ink: Tempting Turquoise, Basic Brown
Accessories: corner rounder, large oval punch, small oval punch, scallop edge punch, heart to heart punch, stampin' dimensionals

All products are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise posted.

Happy Memorial Day!

We had amazing weather yesterday for Sweet Pea's 3rd birthday party and here is her invite! She saw a sample card I had on my stamping desk and said I want those for my birthday. So I made the invitations look like Popsicles. This isn't a new idea, but is a very fun card! She liked the strawberry on the original card, only she wanted it sparkly! So I went over it with a glue pen and then sprinkled some glitter over the top.

The tiny bit of ribbon on the stick is supposed to hold it closed, but I think you need a wider ribbon for that to actually work. My little satiny ribbon is just there for looks! Now, all I need to do is get busy and make all the thank yous for the fun presents all the family got her!


May is a big birthday month in my household. It never was until I got married! My daughter's birthday is the 19th, my BIL's birthday is the 20th (along with my daycare provider and one of Pea's cousins) and then my MIL's birthday is the 27th! Yikes, I don't have her card made!

You see this cute little backpack. I made it, courtesy of an awesome template on SCS! It really wasn't all that hard. The hardest part for me was trying to do it and supervise an almost 3 year old during Saturday morning cartoons! I know I should only attempt these things during nap time!


Here is the matching card for the backpack. I slipped a gift card into the backpack and it fit perfectly. This ensemble went to my daycare provider for her birthday as she makes each and every day special and fun for the girls at daycare!






Here are the details:

Popsicle card -
Stamps: Tart and Tangy, Hugs and Wishes
Paper: Real Red, Whisper White
Ink: Real Red Old Olive, Versamark
Accessories: white ep, heat tool, 1 1/4" circle punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, scallop punch, two way glue pen, Dazzling Diamonds, stampin' dimensionals, mini glue dots, red satin ribbon
Techniques: embossing

Backpack box -
Paper: SEI Mimosa. Groovy Guava
Accessories: thin coral satin ribbon, MM eyelets and snaps, velcro, sticky strip
Techniques: backpack box

Birthday Wishes card -
Stamps: Floral Symphony (Verve), Circular Sayings (Verve)
Paper: SEI Mimosa, Riding Hood Red, Whisper White
Ink: Kiwi Kiss, Riding Hood Red, Cameo Coral, Summer Sun
Accessories: Scallop edge punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, sponge dauber, Soft Subtle brads, stampin' dimensionals, Sakura Clear Star gel pen
Techniques: sponging

All products are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise posted.

Limelight Card Challenges

Limelight Papercraft holds sketch challenges every other week. When Mandy hosts a challenge, there is always a product focus. The product focus for the first card was to use tulle, if you had it. I have so much stuff, I knew I could find some. I did. Good thing it was white, too. I combined the Limelight challenge with a VSN challenge to make a monochromatic green card with only one neutral.
This Limelight challenge is from about 3 weeks ago and the product focus to go with this sketch was pearls. Mandy carries an amazing selection of Kaisercraft pearls. They are so fun and easy to use! I tried to also use other products Mandy carries like Unity stamps and Basic Grey paper. I do like the way that this card turned out. I was low on mojo that week.



Here are the specifics on my cards:

Monochromatic Trees -
Stamps: Trinity Trio (Unity)
Paper: Whisper White, Old Olive, Haiku dp, I Wish dp, Holiday Treasures dp
Ink: Craft White, Old Olive
Accessories: Nestabilities, Bazzill mini brads, 1/4" circle punch, glue dots, white tulle, clear ep, white gel pen, two way glue pen, stampin' dimensionals
Techniques: embossing

Pearl card -
Stamps: Linden Branch (Unity), Sentiments O'Simple (Unity)
Paper: Whisper White, Riding Hood Red, BG Urban Prairie
Ink: Versamark
Accessories: white ep, heat tool, Kaisercraft peals, pink organdy ribbon, white taffeta ribbon, Nestabilities
Techniques: embossing

All products are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise posted.

VSN Is Over:(

Every VSN has a kid's challenge, I think. I have only participated in a few VSN's and Sweet Pea has played two times with me. I let her get a little more active in creating this card. She really enjoyed it and yesterday she wanted to stamp again. Crazy!!







This little challenge from VSN was called Late Night Snack With Elvis. The colors were drawn from his favorite snack and the card also had to include music somewhere. His favorite snack was Fried Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwiches so the colors were Barely Banana/So Saffron, Creamy Caramel and Close to Cocoa! I had a hard time getting the yellow to show. I sponged it in the center of the oval. To make up for that I made sure to color my rhinestones with my Dandelion Sharpie.
I got the sketch from the ladies at Our Creative Corner. When you only have 45 minutes to crank out a card, you have to use all the tools at your disposal. Sketches are a total time saver.




This card was made for the challenge called Hitting the Tables. It ended up being a color challenge to include only red, black and white! The hostess was adamant about using only those three colors, so I was careful to do just that. I like the way my card turned out and, in fact, it netted me a new Unity stamp this week. Woohoo! More Unity on the way!
Another sketch here, this time from Stamps and Smiles.








This card was made for the VSN challenge, Non-traditional Wedding. The trick here was to create a wedding card with bold bright colors. The hostess wanted quirky and out of the box as opposed to the more traditional kind of simple, elegant wedding card! This was very hard for me as most of the time I am pretty rule based! Tradition dictates simple and elegant!
This next set of cards is for the VSN challenge called Double Down. The task was to create two of the same cards and make it fun. The hostess offered up some prompts and said that "relax" was an appropriate sentiment. I just happened to have the very same sentiment that she sampled and I figured, why not? This challenge helped me to learn that I can make cards quick. I made two in less than 45 minutes here!
This card was made for a challenge called Lucky Number 7 and the task was to use 7 of something. I used 7 rhinestones for the center of my flowers. I also only inked up a portion of my stamp to include 7 flowers. The stamp normally has 9 flowers. I also tried to used 7 inches of ribbon, but it just wasn't enough for me to make a knot in the ribbon. I came up with my colors via Dawn McVey's Raspberry Suite color challenge. I borrowed the sketch from the Stamps and Smiles blog in order to save time!





Apparently, I like this layout. It is in three of my VSN cards! This card is from a challenge called Card Buffet. The challenge was to be inspired by some food or non-alcoholic beverage. I chose cupcakes. Who doesn't like cupcakes? Plus, Sweet Pea loves them and they are all the rage at the moment!
Another thing I re-learned at VSN is don't try to learn a new technique and get a card done in 45 minutes. It is especially important not to do this when you need your card to be presentable at a baby shower is a little over an hour! What a goofball I can be sometimes! This challenge was called CSI: Las Vegas and the task was to use a frame on your card.

Too many details to list, so I will refer you to my SCS gallery for more information about actual products used.

Hip Hop Thursday Challenges!

This challenge is from a week ago (05/07/09) and the challenge was to make a card from nothing but scraps. Evreything but the card base had to have been a scrap, already cut into, or discarded from the creation of another card! I worked in an SCS challenge, Ways to Use it called Kool Kraft. I very rarely get to do the Ways To Use It challenges, don't know why?
This was from two days ago and I combined both Hip Hop Challenges to make this card. The first challenge was to include pink and purple on your card and the second challenge was to used a metallic element somewhere on your card. This is card was completely therapy for me. I had had a rotten couple of days at work, so I turned on some cartoons for my daughter and got lost in my craft room. This cute little tea kettle card is the final product of the afternoon!

Here are the details:

Enjoy card -
Stamps: Sentiments O'Simple (Unity)
Paper: Kraft, unknown dp
Ink: Timber Brown StazOn
Accessories: Chocolate chip grosgrain ribbon, Sakura Clear Star gel pen, stampin' dimensionals, glue dots

Hey Hottie -
Stamps: Mix Up of Cuteness (Unity)
Paper: Whisper White, Brushed Silver, BG Lilykate
Ink: Basic Gray
Accessories: metal -edges tag, stampin dimensionals, M's pink satin ribbon, glue dots, white gel pen, silver Sharpie

All products are Stampin' Up unless other wise posted.

Stamps and Smiles Release and Mother's Day

Don't you just love those flowers? I actually made this card one evening when we had no power. I was really worried that my colors would be off and I was using a battery operated lantern to light my desk. I think it turned out just fine. I made this card in response to a Hero Arts challenge to distress! I did some serious distressing on this card, roughing up the edges, sponging ink around the oval and swiping ink over the crumpled up paper strip. My hubby picked this Mother's Day card to give to his Mom. I like both of the cards that I came up with so I didn't mind choosing the next one for my own mother.



In my last post, I briefly mentioned the Stamps and Smiles release festivities. Well, aside from the card in the last post, there were 3 other sketches to complete. There was a sketch on each day, Monday through Thursday and a release party on Friday. This card is from the third sketch of the week. I sponged River Rock on the pink to tone it down.


This card is from the last sketch for the Stamps and Smiles release festivities. I used some of my SU sets that hasn't seen much ink, but I absolutely adore! I embossed the butterfly on vellum with a sparkly white ep and then colored some pink on the back of the butterfly to show through a bit. I used some rhinestones for the body of the butterfly. That frustrated me just a little because they were not the right color and I didn't have a marker to change it! I used my Nestabilities to create the circle elements in this card. I originally had the shape behind the butterfly just stamped, but it looked bare so I whipped out my aquapainter and moved the color around. Much better!


This last card was the first sketch from the Stamps and Smiles Release party. I used it to experiment with some easy thank you cards for my daughter's birthday party. The Tart and Tangy set is super cute and is meant to coordinate with the Summer Picnic dp! I think I will change the cross piece somehow when I do the final edition of her thank you card!

Here are the specifics on the cards:

Hero Arts Mother's day -
Stamps: Clear Design Thinking of You (Hero Arts), sentiment (Hero Arts)
Paper: Kraft, Very Vanilla, Really Rust
Ink: Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa, Really Rust, Ruby Red, Old Olive, Versamark
Accessories: Nestabilities, stampin' sponge, MM edge distresser, Hero Arts flowers, dew drop, glue dots, stampin' dimensionals
Techniques: sponging, distressing, direct to paper, masking

Basic Grey Mother's day -
Stamps: All Year Cheer
Paper: Regal Rose, BG Sugared
Ink: Old Olive, Pink Pirouette, Regal Rose
Accessories: Hero Arts Flowers, M's self-adhesive rhinestones, glue dots

For You -
Stamps: Great Friend
Paper: Whisper White, Rose Red, Basic Grey Perhaps
Ink: Rose Red, Going Grey, Vellum
Accessories: winter wonderland ep, heat tool, M's self-adhesive rhinestones, stampin' dimensionals, Nestabilities. aquapainter, Sakura Clear Star gel pen
Techniques: embossing

Strawberry Thanks -
Stamps: Tart & Tangy, Short & Sweet
Paper: Whisper White, Real Red, Summer Picnic dsp
Ink: Real Red, Old Olive
Accessories: scallop circle punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, Nestabilities, white gel pen, red satin ribbon, stampin' dimensionals

All products are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise posted.

Unity is 1!!!

They threw an amazing week long party with challenges, games and prizes from Unity and Unity sponsors! These are my five challenge cards. This card was from a color challenge that Jennifer Buck issued and the colors were Kraft, Baja Breeze, Ruby Red and So Saffron. They were hard colors for me to use, but I did it. I tried to mimic Jen's style, but somehow it didn't work out as well for me! I guess that should teach me to enjoy other people's style and create in my own!

Christi Snow issued the next challenge in honor of Unity's "FIRST" birthday. The task was to create a card with F=Flowers, I=Insect, R=Ribbon, S=Scallops and T=Turquoise or Teal on it. I learned through the process of this challenge that the Basic Grey Urban Prairie line has lots of papers with little bugs on it. Crazy! I never noticed it before!!!
This next card comes from Maren Benedict's inspiration challenge! She linked us up to some amazing cake photos on Flickr. I wish that I had better photography skills or equipment to show the actual sparkle on the cupcakes. From what I read, that kind of sparkle is difficult to capture in photos, even for quite practiced crafters!
This next card was in response to Jeanne Streiff's challenge to create a one-layer birthday card! I busted out some of the speciality paper from my Taste of Textiles pack from SU!. It's quite pretty in real life. Again, the sheen and shimmer is hard to capture in a photo.
Finally, the last challenge posed by Jimmi Mayo was to use the first Unity stamp that you got on a card or project! I combined this challenge with the last sketch challenge for Stamps and Smiles for their May Release festivities. I will post the other three cards from those festivities later! I think that you can see the loads of glitter and sparkle on this card. I got the glitter dp in a RAK from Jennifer Buck, as well as the rhinestone brad in the one-layer card above! I think she would be surprised if she actually knew how much that I have used all the supplies that she has sent me!

Here are the details for each card:

Love card -
Stamps: Sentiments O'Simple (Unity)
Paper: Kraft, Ruby Red, Whisper White, SEI Granny's Kitchen dp
Ink: Timber Brown StazOn, Ruby Red
Accessories: ticket corner punch, So Saffron grosgrain ribbon glue dot, crystal effects

Enjoy card -
Stamps: Sentiments O' Simple (Unity)
Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black, Soft Sky, BG Urban Prairie dp
Ink: Night of Navy
Accessories: HPH, Black velvet ribbon, large oval punch, scallop oval punch, mini glue dots, stampin' dimensionals, sponge dauber
Techniques: sponging

Cupcake card -
Stamps: Mix Up Of Cuteness (Unity)
Paper: Very Vanilla, Pretty in Pink, Certainly Celery, Print packs dsp
Ink: Timber Brown StazOn, Real Red, white craft ink
Accessories: 1 3/8" square punch, 1 1/4" square punch, large oval punch, small oval punch, 1/8" circle punch, white gel pen, Angel Wings Shimmerz, pink grosgrain ribbon, thin vanilla satin ribbon, SU texturz plates, stampin' dimensionals
Techniques: embossing, paper piecing

Celebrate card -
Stamps: Linden Branch (Unity), Sentiments O' Simple (Unity)
Paper: Taste of Textiles (SU)
Ink: Basic Gray
Accessories: M's black satin ribbon, pretties kit brad, M's self-adhesive rhinestones, glue dots
Techniques: masking

Bling card -
Stamps: Have a Diva Day (Unity)
Paper: Real Red, My Mind's Eye dp
Ink: Stazon Timber Brown
Accessories: M's self adhesive rhinestones, Red Sharpie, Nestabilities, two-way glue pen, gold ultrafine glitter, red organdy ribbon, ticket corner punch, stampin' dimensionals

All products are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise posted.

Birthday Cards!

My little sister just turned "36" and I'm pretty sure that her age doesn't bother her half as much as the fact that she has teenagers!!! Her two boys make ME feel old. I can remember when they were just teeny tiny! Anyway, I wanted to make her a card for her birthday because I wasn't going to be able to see her on her birthday. I got the card done and in the mail in time for it to arrive ON her birthday! She shoots, she scores. (I should also add that I used a Taylored Expression sketch and included a Hero Arts challenge).

This second card I did as part of the Limelight Papercrafts sketch and product challenge. The product focus this time around was on rub-ons! The rub-on worked amazingly on the black linen specialty paper from SU! This card was so fast that I felt like I had cheated! I started off making it for my sister. When I was finished I felt like it was more appropriate for my girlfriend who is turning "40" next month. I will only give it to her if she is feeling okay about turning "40". I want her to like the card, not resent it!

Here are the specifics:

Cupcake birthday -
Stamps: Clear Designs Cupcakes (Hero Arts) Tiny Jubilee Dots (Hero Arts)
Paper: Real Red, Whisper White, Print pack dsp
Ink: Basic Black, Real Red, Regal Rose
Accessories: Aquapainter, Fire circle brads, pretties kit, tag, glue dots, red glitter glue
Techniques: water coloring

Black and White birthday -
Paper: Whisper White, Black Linen, Basic Black
Accessories: Eastern Elegance rub-ons, MAMBI self-adhesive rhinestones, 1 1/4" circle punch, 1" circle punch, M's black satin ribbon, M's white organdy
Techniques: rub-ons

All products are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise posted.

VSN rules!

***Look at what Pea made***

I won't add the details about each card here because that would make this post enormous! Instead, I will just link you up to my SCS gallery for the details. I will however mention which mini-VSN challenge that each card was made for! This card was made for the mini-VSN kids challenge.
This card is for the challenge called "The Gambler".
This card is for the challenge called The Strip.










This card is for the challenge called Happy Hour.
This card is for the challenge called Let's Play BlackJack!
This card was for the challenge called Gold, Gold and More Gold.
This card was for the Surprise challenge on Friday night, Bellie Up!
This card was for the Cirque Du Soleil challenge.

I {heart} Verve in April

There were five sketches in April and they were sooooo hard. You can see my card from the first sketch here. This card you see next to the text is the second sketch for the month of April and its twist was to use background stamps. Of course, I don't have any Verve background stamps. I did the best I could with my SU! stamps. I picked Itty Bitty Backgrounds to hopefully work with the polka dots in the Verve butterfly! I'm also particularly proud of my ruffled ribbon at the top of my card. It's good for a first attempt, but it will be better once I get up the courage to figure out my sewing machine! I'm a big CHICKEN!!!


This is my card for the third sketch of the month. Its twist was a color challenge of Baja Breeze, Summer Sun and More Mustard. This sketch wasn't as tough as the last, but the colors were. I threw in two neutrals, Whisper White and Chocolate Chip to even make it work for me! I was really caught off guard when my hubby liked this one! I think he liked the flowers, I'm not really sure? I added the paper piercing to liven up that layer and add a little interest. Whisper White can be quite boring (yawn)! I also added those dew drops (from Jennifer Buck) to include a bit more of the yellow.



Okay, this is the fourth sketch and Amber took it easier on us with this one! It's twist was to create your own designer paper. I was stumped. I already admitted to having no Verve background stamps, so then I looked to the sets I had to find something to create a dp with and nothing was doing it for me! So I busted out some of my new Flourishes stamps. This background stamp is called Vintage Wallpaper. My husband said, "That's a Grandma card!". I told him the name of the set and we both laughed. He is right, but I still can't help liking the stamp!
This is the fifth and final sketch for April. Its twist was a twist of "spring"! Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy. I went to a dp/color combination that I have been loving lately. I don't know what I will do when I run of the dp, it's not like you can just buy single sheets from SU! Anyway, I had a good time with this one! The Tulip Festival was going on while I made this one. So I stamped the sentiment, the tulip head and then free handed the stem and leaf. Sorry for the blurry picture!


Here are the details:

Butterfly card -
Stamps: Fluttering By (Verve), Itty Bitty Backgrounds (SU)
Paper: Whisper White, Pink Pirouette, Riding Hood Red, Chocolate Chip
Ink: Pink Pirouette, Riding Hood Red, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Pink organdy ribbon, corner rounder, Angel Wings Shimmerz, Sakura Clear Star gel pen

Birthday wishes -
Stamps: Floral Symphony (Verve), Circular Sayings (Verve)
Paper: Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze, Ski Slope dp
Ink: Timber Brown StazOn, Summer Sun, More Mustard
Accessories: 1 3/8" circle punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, mat pack, paper piercing tool, dew drops, Dandelion Sharpie, stampin' dimensionals, glue dots
Techniques: paper piercing

Thanks card -
Stamps: Thanks (Verve), Vintage Wallpaper (Flourishes)
Paper: Groovy Guava, Whisper White, Tangerine Tango
Ink: Versamark, Tangerine Tango
Accessories: white taffeta ribbon, glue dots, pretties kit, Kaisercraft pearls, corner rounder, white ep,heat tool
Techniques: embossing

Bloom card -
Stamps: Floral Symphony (Verve)
Paper: Whisper White, Pink Pirouette, Rose Red, Raspberry Tart dp
Ink: Rose Red, Pretty in Pink, Old Olive, Kiwi Kiss
Accessories: Nestabilities, white taffeta ribbon, M's self adhesive pearls, stampin' dimensionals

All products are Stampin' Up! unless otherwise posted.