Ice Cream for 2

This card qualifies for 2 challenges.

High Hopes #17 (A little late but better than never!)
Wish RAK monthly challenge Feb #2 - CB swiss dots

Stamps: Ice Cream for Two - High Hopes, sentiment - Gina K
Paper: chocolate chip, creamy caramel, white, SU DP
Accessories: Copic markers, ribbon, button, hemp, CB swiss dots, creamy caramel marker for dots

Flash Back Wednesday

Since I didn't have time to make anything new today, I decided to make it a flash back day. Both of these cards were made for past Limited Supply challenges.

Simple One of A Kind

Stamps: One of A Kind, Boho Backgrounds
Colors: river rock, bordering blue, white
Accessories: river rock ribbon, Boho Blossoms punch, scallop scissors, dimensionals






3x3 Quick Snow Blossom

Stamps: In the Spotlight, The Snowflake Spot, Short and Sweet
Paper: blush blossom, chocolate chip, whisper white
Ink: chocolate chip
Acessories: taffeta ribbon, snow blossom punch, mat kit & marker, dimensionals
Technique: distressing

SCS Color Challenge

Color Challenge: more mustard, rose red, kiwi kiss

Stamps: Verve - Petals & Stems, Flutterby By
Accessories: ribbon, paper piercer, dimensionals, sponge

Even though I love mustard, I wasn't sure I was going to like this combo. But it's growing on me. I hadn't even planned on what set to use. I had told myself that I had to get my PIF images stamped and mailed today before I could make a card. Well, I was using this set and it hit me. Verve was the way to go, today!

CAS02 - One Button Will Do!

CAS has become very popular and we're so excited! We even have a design team every season. Come check us out! This week we would like you to use one button on your card.

What is CAS?
The idea of CAS is to keep it Clean and Simple.

Definition: A clean and simple card has limited layers and sometimes just a card base. It leaves a lot of "open space". It uses little or no embellishments. Any techniques should be the old standard everyday kind like sponging, distressing and piercing. Limit the number of tools you use. Any colored images should be small and quick. Don't go overboard on tons of punches and embossing. CAS cards should be easy and quick.

Here's my 1st card for CAS02 - Checker Flower

Stamps: flower - DRS Designs
Colors: regal rose, pretty in pink, so saffron, bashful blue, certainly celery
Accessories: button MS butterfly punch, celery marker


Here's my second button card for the CAS challenge - You're Fabulous!

Stamps: It's Beautiful wheel, Absolutely Fabulous
Colors: riding hood red, black, white
Accessories: ribbon, button, stickles

SCS Featured Stamper Challenges

I was so excited to be able to use Teacher Anya that I received from Tammy on the PIF thread!

This week's Featured Stamper: juliemlacey

* different Anya image
* same layout
* similar colors
* less layers
* no hearts; added brad and sentiment
* Since this was a PIF, I couldn't use a Top Note.

Here's Juliemlacey's adorable card.

Stamps: Teacher Anya - The Greeting Farm, sentiment - SU's Wonderful Words
Colors: bashful blue, creamy caramel, white
Accessories: Copic markers, ribbon, brads, dimensionals, DSP


This is a card I made quite awhile ago.

Featured Stamper: stampinat6213

* same stamp sets
* different colors. Used stamps instead of DSP
* used butterflies instead of flowers

Here's Nancy's beautiful card.

Nancy cased it from kricki.

Kricki cased it from Cris1467.

And I think It's been cased several more time. LOL! It's a GREAT card!

Stamps: Priceless, Hugs & Wishes, So Swirly Wheel
Colors: pale plum, perfect plum, white
Accessories: taffeta ribbon, dimensionals (on the top butterflies)

IN THE NEWS!

Several companies have had new releases. Here are 3 of my favorites!

DRS Designs

High Hopes

Whipper Snapper

Stampendous has also had a new release, but I can't find the link. But my LSS helped me out with those. :)

Fun, fun, fun! Now I need to get well so I can start stamping some more.

The first CAS Challenge Design Team

First, I want to say thank you. I'm so happy that we've had so many challenge participants after only 2 CAS challenges (one being in the Limited Supply Challenge). There is so much talent on SCS that has been hidden!

It was very difficult to choose just 3 people. I hope that if you submitted cards for the DT call that you will do so again in May. If for some reason a DT member is unable to complete her term, I will choose a another designer from the first group who expressed interest. After all, you never know when you'll drop your only camera, burn your hand with a heat gun, punch a hole in your finger with a crop-o-dile, or go blind from too much glitter blown in your eye. All kidding aside, we never know when illness or accident may happen to a stamper or her family. So if I need a replacement, I'll look at the first group.


The first design team will be for the Spring Term 2009.



craftycaro (Carolina)

LateBlossom (Susan)

mudflapmamma (Angela)



Thank you ladies! I think this new idea for challenge design teams will be a positive one for the CAS style!

Blast from the Past: Valentines

Stamps: Olive You, Flannel Plaid BG, hearts unknown
Colors: real red, black, brocade blue
Accessories: ribbon, WW crayons, marker

This card measures 4.25 square. I buy 4.5 envelopes from A Muse.









Stamps: Sweet & Sassy, Houndstooth, Loving Hearts
Colors: so saffron, rose red, orchid opulence, white
Accessories: ribbon

I remember this card being a sample for a color challenge when I was guest hostessing. Everyone thought I was out of my mind! But the cards in the gallery were amazing.








Stamps: Wild About You, Bodacious Bouquet, Beyond the Basics
Color: old olive, cetainly celery, vintage violet, white
Accessories: ribbon, square punches

SCS has a new weekly challenge... CAS!

The idea of CAS is to keep it Clean and Simple.

Definition: A clean and simple card has limited layers and sometimes just a card base. It leaves a lot of "open space". It uses little or no embellishments. Any techniques should be the old standard everyday kind like sponging, distressing and piercing. Limit the number of tools you use. Any colored images should be small and quick. Don't go overboard on tons of punches and embossing. CAS cards should be easy and quick.

The CAS challenges will be on Mondays. This 1st week's challenge was an inspiration challenge. When I go to Joann's for card making supplies, I always have to visit the fabrics. I cannot sew..... at all. (That's why I like faux stitching ) But I love the patterns and often get inspiration from them.

I had linked 2 patterns from Joann's Snuggle Fabric line. But you can choose any of the Snuggle fabrics for your inspiration. Just put a link to the pattern in your comments when uploading.

This is one of the 2 cards I made as samples.

Stamps: butterflies - Verve, Curvy Verses - SU
Colors: regal rose, white
Accessories: ticket corner punch, organdy ribbon, marker, dimensionals

And there is more!

I am looking for a Design Team to help me make samples for the challenges, help come up with new and creative ideas and step in and post the challenge if I'm out of town or sick... or something like that.

I'm looking for 3 people for a 3 month term. The first term will actually be a 3.5 month term because we're already well into February. So, the first 3 people will be on the team for the rest of February, March, April, and May.

Sometime in May, I will be looking for people for the next 3 month term.

Sound like fun? Then send me 3 of your best CAS cards to my email address by Friday, February 13 at midnight EST. I will let you know who the 1st 3 people are on Saturday. If you don't get chosen this time, don't worry... your turn will come.

My email address is
designsbyboo at hotmail dot com

Skippin' Bee

It's been a busy, busy week! (on top of having a cold... yuck). This is the card that I made for SCS's sketch challenge on Wednesday.

Stamps: Skippin' Bee - Stampendous, sentiment - Gina K's Framed Friends
Colors: regal rose, pretty in pink, so saffron, white
Accessories: spiral clip, so saffron & pretty in pink ribbon, Copic markers, regal rose SU markers for the dots

Remembering Grandpa

Today marks the 1st anniversary of the day my grandpa passed away. In the few days he had left, this card hung on the cabinet by the TV in his hospital room. Even though he was 88, he had always been there. He had overcome so many health problems and rebounded quickly. It was understandably hard on me to realize he wasn't coming home this time. I miss him very much.

All SU products were used.
Stamps: Fishy Friends, Crab & Company, Cheesecloth, Flower Filled
Colors: white, creamy caramel, soft sky, craft white, chocolate chip, certainly celery
Accessories: WW crayons, ribbon, markers
Techniques: Masking

SCS Featured Stamper: K Dunbrook

Wow! I can't remember the last time I used this set. It was a lot of fun. Thank you for the inspiration, Karen!

Featured Stamper: K Dunbrook

* I changed the colors.
* I used the same layout but on a bigger card. (9"x4")
* I used brads instead of a sentiment.
* I used a similar main image.
* I used a punched image and stickles instead of buttons.

Here's Karen's beautiful card.

Stamps: Baroque Motifs
Paper: WW, bashful blue, certainly celery, close to cocoa DSP, unknown striped DP
Ink: Palette Burnt Umber, bashful blue
Accessories: celery poly-twill ribbon (SAB), brads, circle punch, stickles

This card fits inside a business size envelope.

It's good to be back!

Well, I could tell you all about my computer problems for the last week... but that's boring. The more exciting thing is I have an early birthday present from my parents... a new laptop computer!!!!! I love it.... but I admit that I'm still trying figure it out. Mostly I've been transferring hard drive documents. I can't believe I've only made one card this week... whoa! Hopefully, I will change that soon! Here's the one card I made. I used the SCS sketch challenge.

Stamps: Fun & Fast Notes, Aida Cloth BG, Petite BGs
Paper: chocolate chip, creamy caramel, bashful blue, bashful blue DSP, white, riding hood red
Ink: black, chocolate chip, creamy caramel, bashful blue
Accessories: Copic markers, Michael's ribbon, Heart to Heart punch, dimensionals

CAS - Clean & Simple

I was really excited to be asked to hostess the SCS Limited Supply challenge today! I was racking my brain all week when it hit me this afternoon. This week I discovered a member's gallery that is just amazing. I found her on a thread she started in General Stamping. You can see it here. In Susan's 1st post she says:

"for those of us who don't do techniques that require anything like "talent" or "skill," who don't layer our cards into inch-thick confections of pure gorgeousness, who don't have all the latest nesties or copics, who don't have coloring skills above kindergarten level, and who do love to make clean and simple and, most of all, EASY cards...please post your favorites from your own gallery, the ones that make you happy"


Susan is talking about Clean An Simple cards, otherwise known as CAS.

Today, we are filling the SCS gallery with CAS cards! Need a little inspiration? Here's Susan's beautiful gallery.

Here are the deets on the card I made for the challenge.

Stamps: DRS Designs
Paper: white, black, riding hood red, ruby red
Ink: black
Accessories: riding hood red taffeta ribbon, Copic markers, Heart to Heart punch

OMG! What a day!

It's so good to be back online. I don't know how I lived before the internet... LOL!

The day started with the alarm not going off.... because it wasn't on. (Don't want to go there.) But my first thought was, maybe there's no school. We were supposed to get 3-6 inches of snow. No such luck. Roads were horrible and I would never want to be a bus driver on days like this. DH and I got our multiply impaired son ready in 1/2 an hour (This is the 5th time this year so we know that team effort works. LOL) BUT... the bus was very late. And when she got here, the driver was on the hood trying to fix her wipers. I felt so badly for her. My dad has a driving job and doesn't understand why the schools were open.

Anyway.... I ended up going back to bed. I haven't been feeling very well and lots of things have been stressing me out. But my counselor called and I was able to get out of bed, take my meds, and make this card. That's when the Boot Drive on my computer went POOF. I don't even know what a boot drive is. I thought I lost everything. I learned that my stuff was on the hard drive. I thought it was all one thing. But hubby fixed it and ran off to work. I finally uploaded this card with a new updated version of photo software.... and wow! What a difference in the quality. It doesn't just brighten, it drops shadows.... in the pinpointed area!! So something good came out of it. But nothing on my To Do list got done... that makes 3 days in a row. (Sigh).

Now that I've rambled on and bored you, what do you think of the card I made?

Here are the deets:

Stamps: Marshmallow Mug - Impression Obsession, In the Spotlight - SU
Paper: close to cocoa, creamy caramel, white, pretty in pink & bashful blue, DSP
Accessories: Copic markers, eyelets, ribbon, brads, snow blossom punch, paper piercer, cocoa marker, dimensionals
Techniques: faux stitching


Thanks so much for visiting!

Boo

Color Challenge: pacific point, baja breeze, & garden green

I just received this High Hopes image and sentiment from my PIF friend sbs81. Thanks Stephanie! The frog on the inside of the card (pictured below is from SU's Toy Box.

Stamps: April & Mr. Waddles and sentiment - High Hopes
Paper: pacific point, baja beeze, baja breeze DSP, white
Ink: black, baja breeze for sponging the sky, sahara sand for sponging the ground
Accessories: Copic markers, ribbon, spiral clip

A Weekend of Stamping

I had a fun filled relaxing weekend of stamping. It's nice to do that once in awhile (but it also means I have a lot of laundry to catch up on!) Here are my favorites from the group.

Tomorrow, I'm sending this first card to Julie, an SCS member, at DBU and entering in a drawing on Jen del Muro's blog. You can find the information here. Students at DBU come from 50 different countries! It's nice that they do a card ministry. I've sent cards to her before and I'm glad to be doing it again.

For SCS's Inspiration challenge, I used this Lang calendar.

I'm also entering this card in January's Wish RAK challenge #2. My wish is the bashful blue Nestie.

I used a sketch I saw during the holidays at Verve.

Stamps: What's Moo? - Elzybells
Paper: close to cocoa, pretty in pink, pretty in pink DSP, bashful blue, white
Accessories: Copic markers, paper peircer and bashful blue marker, Nestie, scallop edge punch, dimensionals, taffeta ribbon
Techniques: faux stitching, sponging with green galore and bashful blue for the grass and sky


Featured stamper: Vicky Gould

* Used a different frog
* used similar colors
* changed the layout

Here's Vicky's adorable card.

The layout I used was one from Taylor's cupcake challenge: TECC25

This also qualifies for today's High Hopes challenge: Use Hearts

Stamps: High Hopes
Paper: bashful blue, wild wasabi, pretty in pink, regal rose, white
Ink: black, bashful blue, wild wasabi
Accessories: CB Swiss Dots (Wish RAK), scallop edge punch, Copic markers, Heart to Heart punch, dimensionals
Techniques: masking, sponging


This card measures 5.25 square. It was made for Gina K's January Release party Sweet challenge.

Stamps: fish - Gina K's Just Keep Swimming, sentiment - Gina K's Framed Friends, coral - High Hopes
Paper: real red, bashful blue, certainly celery, white, pumpkin pie DSP
Accessories: Copic markers, SU heart to Heart punch. ribbon

Philippians 4:13

I made this for the LSC challenge. We had to use black as our base color so the colors would pop.

I used a new SAB set, that will be available next month, with a Bible verse from Verve.

Stamps: Beible verse - Verve, Botanical Blooms - Stampin' Up (SAB)
Paper: white, black, bashful blue bashfule blue DSP
Accessories: ribbon, paper piercing

SAB - Blast from the Past

Anyone remember the SAB stamp Big Blossom. It was the size of a BG stamp! I'm not sure it was very popular and even I sold mine on eBay. I couldn't get a good impression with ink. But I did save the card board template I made if I ever want to use it for patterned paper again.

Stamp: Big Blossom, Petal Pushers, Cheesecloth
Paper: chocolate chip, bashful blue, so saffron, Spring Showers DP
Ink: chocolate chip, bashful blue
Accessories: circle punch










Here's another look at Big blossom on a square card. This card measures 4.25 square. I use 4.5 A Muse envelopes.

Stamps: Big Blosom, A Light Heart, Warm Words
Paper: real red, cameo coral, white, unknown DP
Ink: real red, cameo coral
Accessories: circle punches, paper piercer, paper clip










Here's the Big Blossom as an accent on a 12x12 scrapbook page.

Stamps: Big Blossom, Happy Everything
Paper: close to cocoa, so saffron, Spring showers DP
Ink: chocolate chip
Accessories: ribbon

Faux Embossing with Hearts and Stripes

For the Ways to Use It challenge, we needed to customize our designer paper. I chose to use the faux dry embossing technique. And I used my new Hundred Hearts set from Verve. I love this company... which is one of the reasons why I cut my SU order in half last night.


Stamps: Hundred Hearts - Verve
Paper: so saffron, chocolate chip, regal rose, very vanilla, Making Memories DP
Accessories: eyelet, ribbon, CM heart maker, chocolate chip marker, scallop edge punch


Faux dry embossing technique: choose a shape that can be punched. It can be flowers, circles, anything you like. Simply line them up on the patterned paper and glue! Easy peasy... usually. This is the first time I've tried it with stripes. A couple of my hearts are a little off. Now you're going to look for them, aren't you? LOL! (To get a better view, right click on the photo.)