Challenges (Variable)

SUOC66 – Easter Basket

March 12, 2013 Jentimko 6 Comments

We have a wonderful theme this week over at SUO Challenges! We are celebrating Easter. Be it religious or fun little bunnies and baskets, we want to see it!

I thought it would be fun to create an Easter basket complete with little eggs. I started with the Floral District DSP (yes, I know…I really do love it). The bright colors are just like the colors I love on our family eggs. I started by punching out the Rose Red design with the Petite Purse Die and cut off the front panel to create the basket. I then found the oval in the Oval Framelits that was just a tad smaller than the width of the basket. I cut that oval and then cut it again with the next smaller oval to form the handle. The eggs are made with the Large Oval Punch. I put part of a little doily at the basket edge and attached a little bow made from Baja Breeze Seam Binding. After playing around with the sketch for a while, I accidentally knocked the Daffodil Delight panel askew…and I liked it so it stayed that way permanently. I have to admit that this little basket makes me really happy!! I hope you like it too!

I am looking forward to the Easter entries in the gallery! Thanks for dropping in to visit today. I’ll be back tomorrow with the latest from Freshly Made Sketches (it is my sketch this week)! Hope your day is great!

Stamp: Teeny Tiny Wishes; Paper: Floral District DSP, Baja Breeze, Whisper White; Ink: Baja Breeze; Accessories: Big Shot, Petite Purse Die, Ovals Framelits, Large Oval Punch, Tea Lace Paper Doilies, Neutrals Buttons, Baja Breeze Seam Binding

SUOC65 – Hello Green

February 26, 2013 Jentimko 5 Comments

Are you dreaming of the beautiful greens of spring yet?? Well, I have to admit that my house is holding out for one really good snow (with enough for sledding) but after that, bring on the spring!!! But to brighten up our cold, icky days (at least here in VA) this theme from SUO Challenges seems particularly refreshing! We are “Going Green”! Of course there are a couple of interpretations of this but I went literally and chose one of Stampin’ Up’s fabulous greens for the focus…Lucky Limeade.

I will admit that it took me a while to warm up to Lucky Limeade. Maybe I am a late adapter?? Funny enough though, I find myself turning to it more lately. So I decided to go all out on it to see what happened. I chose two prints from the pretty Tea for Two DSP and went from there. The large banner simply has two pieces of the striped paper that were matched up so that it would be wider. I thought this pretty flower from Oh, Hello would be a nice addition and give one little pop of another color. In this case, it is Calypso Coral. I stamped the sentiment onto some Very Vanilla and then punched it out with my 2-1/2″ Circle Punch. After stamping the flower, I cut it out and put it on the circle to give an “out of the box” effect.

To point me in the right direction on this card, I use this awesome sketch from The Paper Players. Great one, huh?

Well, I can’t wait to see all of your green this week. It is sure to be another fantastic gallery! I’ll be back tomorrow with the latest Freshly Made Sketches challenge. Until then, I hope your day is great!

Stamp: Oh Hello; Paper: Tea for Two DSP, Very Vanilla, Lucky Limeade; Ink: Lucky Limeade, Calypso Coral; Accessories: 2-1/2″ Circle Punch, Lucky Limeade Ruffled Ribbon, 1-3/8″ Square Punch, Dimensionals

SUOC64 – Sale-a-bration fun!

February 12, 2013 Jentimko 10 Comments

Oh what fun…it is time to celebrate Sale-a-bration (SAB) over at SUO Challenges this week! Frankly, what is not to celebrate!! Free products just for getting what you were already going to purchase. Yea!!

So I had a bit of a dilemma for today’s post. Two cards! Which one to choose for the SUO Challenges site??!! I went with the one that we made at my SAB class last week but will show you the other one, of course. Something about this card really spoke to me and my stampers loved it too. The stamp set, Vintage Verses, is one that can stand alone with only a small amount of extra or one that can be all “fancied up” (see the design team’s cards at the challenge site!). I love that kind of flexibility! I dyed on of the 5/8″ Flower Trim flowers with Midnight Muse ink and added it right on top of the sentiment (also stamped with Midnight Muse). A Basic Pearl called out to be used and I love it here. I thought it needed a little extra something, so I pulled out my new Stampin’ Distess Tool to distress the edges of the top layer. Easy, fast and fabulous distressing! Love this new tool! A couple of my stampers were planning to use this as a Valentine’s card but the sentiment is perfect for many things. Did I mention it is free?? So much to love with SAB!

Now I created another card using basically the same idea but I added a little bit of the lace from the Artisan Embellishments Kit under the flower. Oh how I love this lace!! It adds another special touch with no extra work!

So I’m curious which version you like better. To make it more fun, I’ll offer a little blog candy. Let me know which you prefer and I will randomly choose someone to receive the most popular version. Make sure you tell me your favorite and why in a comment to this post. I’ll chose from everyone who comments on Saturday, Feb. 16th and then send it right out to the winner.

I know I have been missing a bit over the last few weeks and I appreciate your patience with me. I have been trying to recharge the creative batteries a bit. Working on lots of ideas and I look forward to showing you those over the next few months. In the mean time, please know how grateful I am that you spend a part of your day with me!

I’ll be back tomorrow with the latest from Freshly Made Sketches. Now hop right over to the SUO Challenges site and you will be AMAZED at what you see. Can’t wait to see what you share from you SAB projects!

Stamp: Vintage Verses (SAB); Paper: Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla; Ink: Midnight Muse, Rose Red Reinker (bottom card); Accessories: 5/8″ Flower Trim, Basic Pearls, Artisan Embellishments Kit (bottom card), Dimensionals, Stampin’ Distress Tool (top card)

SUOC63 – My little Valentine

January 29, 2013 Jentimko 4 Comments

Our theme at SUO Challenges this week is Clean and Simple Valentines. Such a great and timely theme!! After such a great turn out for our last challenge, I am really excited to see what everyone does with this one.

My club meeting on Thursday was cancelled because of the snow days but we will be meeting this week instead. I can’t wait! We will be making this Valentine card. I started with the doily and then layered on some circles. My new Hearts a Flutter Framelit cut the little heart out of Tea for Two DSP. A little bow from Crumb Cake Seam Binding and a little sentiment from Tiny Tags finish it off. I love that this has some great details but is still clean and quick to make.

Sorry to be so short today. We have had some “snow” days and the boys were out of school last Thursday, part of Friday and yesterday. Thankfully my youngest’s birthday party was able to happen over the weekend…a pool party in January! The boys had such a great time and they have such wonderful friends. I am working to catch up, of course!

Make sure you drop by the challenge site to see all the inspiration from the team. Fabulous as always! Thanks so much for stopping in today. Hope your day is great!

Stamp: Tiny Tags; Paper: Crumb Cake, Tea for Two DSP, First Edition DSP; Ink: Crumb Cake; Accessories: 1-3/4″ Circle Punch, 2-1/2″ Circle Punch, Big Shot, Hearts a Flutter Framelits, Crumb Cake Seam Binding, Neutrals Buttons, Linen Thread, Jewelry Tag Punch, Tea Lace Doilies, Sponge Daubers, Dimensionals

SUOC62 – These are a few…

January 15, 2013 Jentimko 2 Comments

…of our favorite new things!! Spring Catalog things, that is!! At SUO Challenges this week, our theme is “New Toys”! Perfect for the new year, don’t you think? Now we know that all of you don’t have your new products from the Spring Catalog yet, so if it is new to you, we’d love to see it!

I am so excited to finally get to share this card with you. Finally?? Well, I actually made this back in December for a Control Freaks Spring Catalog swap and have been looking forward to posting it! My very first, “had to have it” product from this new catalog was the Hearts a Flutter Bundle…yep, the stamp set and the coordinating framelits. They are so much fun!! All I did was stamp the images in a little row, line up the framelits (use a small piece of a post-it note to hold them in place), and run them through the Big Shot. I added in this fun little doily and put some texture on the background with the Honeycomb Embossing Folder. I thought Linen Thread was the perfect banner holder. I tied a little loop in one end and put a separately tied bow on the other. A little sentiment from Tiny Tags and it is a fun little Valentine. I loved that it uses non-traditional colors!

I can’t wait to hear what you think about this. I really can’t wait to see what you create for our challenge this week! I know you’ll love what the rest of the team has created so head right over there to get inspired.

If you didn’t see the fun announcements from yesterday’s post, make sure you roll down to take a look. I’ll be back tomorrow with the latest from Freshly Made Sketches. Until then, I’m so glad you stopped in. See you soon!

Stamps: Hearts a Flutter, Tiny Tags; Paper: Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Calypso Coral; Ink: Calypso Coral, Baja Breeze, Daffodil Delight, Crumb Cake; Accessories: Big Shot, Hearts a Flutter Framelits, Honeycomb EF, Tea Lace Paper Doilies, Linen Thread, Mini Glue Dots, Boho Blossoms Punch, Basic Pearls

SUOC61 – Everything Blue

December 25, 2012 Jentimko 1 Comment

I hope that your week is going well!! We have a great new theme for you at SUO Challenges this week – Everything Blue. Let’s face it, blue is the favorite color of so many people and it is fun to focus on one color!

I could not hold off any longer. I just had to pull out more new things from the Spring Catalog. My “something blue” this week is a sneak peek at some new designer paper called Tea for Two. All the paper prints on this card are from that set. The little doily is such a fun way to add texture without bulk and they come in sets of 24. I cut this one in half then wrapped the edges around the DSP. Fun, huh??! A little Linen Thread and a Vintage Faceted Button added just the right vintage touch. Finally, I stamped a sentiment from Day of Gratitude onto the DSP (the strip and the stamped pieces are front and back side). I hope you like this quick and sweet little thank you card! We are now entering the season of the thank you card and I should be able to make a set of these pretty easily for timely mailing!

Thank you, too, to all my readers. As we approach the end of the year I want you to know that your comments are such a gift to me!! I appreciate be able to share my love of stamping with you!

Stamp: Day of Gratitude; Paper: Tea for Two DSP, Crumb Cake; Ink: Soft Suede; Accessories: Tea Lace Paper Doilies, Linen Thread, Vintage Faceted Buttons

SUOC60 – All that Glitters…

December 11, 2012 Jentimko 7 Comments

…must be from Stampin’ Up!! Ok, maybe not EVERYTHING that glitters but there sure are a lot of things from SU that do!! So it seems like the perfect time for SUO Challenges to do this theme – Glitter Galore.

What better to use for a sparkly theme than the Glimmer Paper??!! I love this paper! It is so amazing in person! I cut out some snowflakes using the Snow Flurry Die. Then I simply mixed a couple drop of Not Quite Navy reinker and a few drops of water, using that to color the bigger snowflakes. You can play around with the color until it is what you like (I used a small scrap first). After it dried, I layered a “plain” silver snowflake on top (not really very plain, after all). I love the effect! A Basic Rhinestone was the perfect thing to add to the centers. Now for the sentiment. With all the sparkle I couldn’t just use any old thing to stamp the sentiment. I pulled out my Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder. To get a little color behind the sparkle, stamp your sentiment onto a Versamark Pad and then onto a Basic Gray pad. This will make your ink sticky and the embossing powder will stick perfectly (don’t forget to use your Embossing Buddy first).

The team has made some spectacular projects…you might consider some sunglasses for all the sparkle! *smile* We can’t wait for you to show us your glitter and glam!!

So glad you dropped by today. I am still madly working on my Christmas cards but will be back tomorrow with another Freshly Made Sketches card. Until then, have a great day!

Stamp: More Merry Messages; Paper: Silver Glimmer Paper, Whisper White; Ink: Versamark, Basic Gray, Not Quite Navy Reinker; Accessories: Big Shot, Snow Flurry Die, Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder, Basic Rhinestones, Heat Tool, Dimensionals

SUOC59 – Fun Folds

November 27, 2012 Jentimko 4 Comments

Oh yes indeed…the theme this week at SUO Challenges is Fun Folds! You know you love them…and when you try them, you remember how easy and “wow” they can be. If you haven’t tried them, the design team will lead you in the right direction. No time like the present to give it a try!

I thought it would be fun to re-visit the Joy Fold. I just love this one and it always makes me so happy! Let’s face it, the Designer Series Papers do most of the work. I used this tutorial as a starting point. The Basic Gray background pieces use the measurements given in the tutorial for DSP with a small exception. It seems that there was an error on the measurements needed for the inner and outer panels on the small section. My Basic Gray layers are 2 3/4″ x 3 3/4″ (since the inner card folded becomes 3″ x 4″). I thought that the colors in the Storytime DSP would be fun with the snowflakes from Snowflake Soiree and they are great with this fold. Here are some pictures with the stages of being opened:

I stamped the snowflakes in Riding Hood Red and Baja Breeze, and the sentiment in Basic Gray. The sentiment on the inside is from More Merry Messages (what a great set!!). I used a little Sticky Strip to hold on the button since I know it will hold with the opening/closing.

I had a sneak peek of the design team’s card and I see new folds to try. Make sure you go take a look and get some inspiration!! I hope we’ll see you in the gallery too!

I hope your Thanksgiving was fantastic (for those of you who celebrate)! I was so lucky to go to a cousin’s house for the day. They had the most wonderful turkey and sides. All I had to do was bring pie and cranberry sauce (a recipe that my boys love!) Lucky me!! My mom has been here all week but she leaves today. We did get some stamping time…so fun…and I got some more instruction on my sewing machine. Yes, I really will get braver with using it! I keep pinning ideas! Back tomorrow with a fantastic sketch from Rita at Freshly Made Sketches. Hope to see you then!

Stamps: Snowflake Soiree, More Merry Messages; Paper: Storytime DSP, Whisper White, Basic Gray; Ink: Riding Hood Red, Baja Breeze, Basic Gray; Accessories: Neutrals Buttons, White Baker’s Twine, Sticky Strip

SUO Challenges #58 – CAS Holiday

November 13, 2012 Jentimko 1 Comment

Happy Tuesday!! You will be so happy to see the theme for SUO Challenges this week – CAS (Clean and Simple) Holiday. Yes, for all of you who are like me and are behind on your cards, we have loads of inspiration to help you create fabulous cards that are easy to duplicate.

A couple of weeks ago when I was working on another wreath card, I noticed that my Daydream Medallions set would make a cool wreath too. Finally I got the chance to try out my idea. I have to say that I really like this stamp as a wreath…a lot!!! The size of this stamp lends itself to a clean and simple (CAS) layout and this one is a go-to for me. Basic but the frame gives a little extra pop of color. Of course no wreath is complete without a big bow so I added one of my “potato masher” double bows (tutorial here). I love these bows!! The sentiment from Snowflake Soiree is just the right scale for this, don’t you think? Finally, I added some tiny Basic Pearls that I colored. I simply love those little pearls!

When you see what the design team has created, you will want to copy every one!! Such a talented team! We can’t wait to see what you have to show us so make sure you post your Clean and Simple Holiday cards for us to see!!

Back tomorrow with a new sketch designed by me for Freshly Made Sketches. Have a great day!

Stamps: Daydream Medallions, Snowflake Soiree; Paper: Naturals Ivory, Always Artichoke; Ink: Always Artichoke; Accessories: Basic Pearls, Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding, Dimensionals

SUOC57 – Fall Elegance

October 30, 2012 Jentimko 11 Comments

With the leaves in deep color here in the Eastern US, the SUO Challenges theme this week seems perfect – Fall Elegance. Sadly I think most of my leaves will be gone in the next couple of days due to this storm hitting the Eastern seaboard. I hope that all of you reading this who live in the affected areas remain safe during this event. (I am pre-posting this just in case I lose power)

I suppose this card is appropriate for this storm but it is actually for the principal at my children’s school. He is a wonderful man and loved by our boys and suffered a family loss. When I think of fall and elegant there is one stamp that simply MUST be used…French Foliage. I love these leaves. I love the other stamps. It is awesome! I wanted to keep the palette fairly muted except for the leaves and I am happy with how the leaves look like some in my yard right now. I stamped the script in Basic Gray (it was stamped off first to keep it subtle) and then added the post mark and the water marks. The leaves were first inked in one color (More Mustard for the bigger leaf, Cajun Craze for the smaller). Then I sponged on a secondary color at the edges using a sponge dauber (Cajun Craze for the bigger leaf, Basic Gray for the smaller). I cut them out and then sponged additional Basic Gray ink on them. The sentiment is from the Petite Pairs set and seemed perfect for this card.

I used a sketch from this week’s The Paper Players challenge. Nance really came up with a great one! I turned it on its side to make it work better for me.

I hope that I will be able to update you by tomorrow (and that our power stays on). Regardless, I will have a post because I am pre-posting it as well. We have a wonderful new sketch all ready for you at Freshly Made Sketches. Until then, have a great (and safe) day!

Stamps: French Foliage, Petite Pairs; Paper: Naturals Ivory; Ink: More Mustard, Cajun Craze, Basic Gray; Accessories: Neutrals Buttons, Linen Thread, Sponge Daubers, Dimensionals, Mini Glue Dots

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