Something totally un-Christmassy, just before Christmas

A friend's son had a birthday the other day, and being the blingy girl I am, I always look forward to the challenge of doing "man cards".

This also gave me an opportunity to use my new Buttons die.  LOVE them!

The letter's in Jack's name are actually little monsters.  :) 

Time for a little challenge...

I was chatting with the fabulous Paula Dobson one day and the subject of stepping outside one's comfort zone when creating came up.  So Paula challenged me to create a project using ONLY Stampin' Up! products.  "I'm up for that", I thought... and waited for inspiration to settle over me.

Settle over me it did - in the form of one of Lauren Meader's fantastic 3D projects - check out her amazing site here.  I chose The Flapper Box (maybe because it was full of chocolate??).  The straight-forward instructions made constructing this REALLY easy - and FUN!

Here's the list of ingredients used:

Card Stock: Blushing Bride, Espresso, Very Vanilla

Ink: Soft Suede, Pink Pirouette

Stamps: Yummy, Happy Harmony

Miscellany: Blushing Bride ribbon, silver brads, Eyelet Border punch, Photo Corners punch



This yummy choccie box is going straight to Paula - to say Merry Christmas and thanks for all your creative help and guidance since I started stamping.  SURPRISE!

Just Add Ink challenge #46

The gorgeous girls over at Just Add Ink have a cooooool challenge this week - Just Add CRITTERS!  Head over to check out some of the awesome entries!

We have a family birthday next week, so my entry is a birthday card.  Going out on a limb and using out-of-my-ordinary colours again.  I also LOVE dragonflies, so they are my critters.

Enjoy!

Ingredients:

Card stock: Sahara Sand, Very Vanilla
Stamps: Yummy (r), Organic Grace
Inks: Soft Suede, Baja Breeze
Extras: Dimensionals, Baja Breeze ribbon (r)

Just Add Ink challenge #45

It's a sketch challenge at Just-Add-Ink this week and it's a NEAT one!

I'm usually a very pinky-blingy-ribbony girl, so I set myself the added challenge of using none of my usual fluffiness and I also chose blue, a colour I don't use often enough. I photographed the card at night, so the Whisper White looks like Very Vanilla!  In saying that, I'm really happy with how it turned out.

What a difference a day makes!  Here's a picture taken during daylight:

Ingredients:

Card stock - Whisper White, Night of Navy, Night of Navy Patterns Pack.

Ink - Bashful Blue, Marina Mist, Perfect Plum.

Stamps - Vintage Vogue.

Extras - silver brads, dimensionals, eyelet border punch.

Still got my mind on Christmas...

If you read my last post, I had been inspired by Just Add Ink's Christmas challenge.  Well, it hasn't worn off yet so I decided to make some cards for some of our extended family.  This proved even more of a challenge - with only two Christmassy stamps, trying to make even a slightly diverse range of cards was very trying!  Good though - it forces you to go outside the square.  You'll notice one of the "Echoes of Kindness" flower stamps dressed up to look like pohutukawa!  I also found my little giftbox stamp, which I repeated with Subtles collection inks.

You can tell I'm loving my Cherry Cobbler papers and my new eyelet border punch... I'm using it on everything!

Just Add Ink challenge #43

Ho ho ho!  Can you tell I'm getting into the Christmas Spirit already?  I have to thank the gorgeous girls over at Just Add Ink for firing me up about Chrissy cards!  I've never been a Christmas-card person, but I think I've been bitten by the bug - I kind of figured as much when I took my Ideas Catalogue to bed last night to pour over Christmas stamps!

ANYway - here's my entry.  Loads of Cherry Cobbler and Regals Patterns Pack cardstock, Dazzling Diamonds (of course!) and some ribbon to finish it off.

Back again!

My, how time flies when you're busy busy! Life has been crazy, but here is the Just Add Ink challenge from week before last (that I didn't get around to posting), but here it is for your viewing pleasure.

Ingredients:


Cardstock - Baja Breeze, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla
Ink: Soft Suede, Versamark
Stamps: Very Vintage, Flower roller (can't remember the name!)
Miscellaneous: Scallop circle punch, Baja Breeze ribbon, Dazzling Diamonds, silver brad (and blue pearls & random rhinestone button).

I'm currently working on something for my mother-in-law's birthday, but as all good things take time (read: me mucking around and not getting down to business earlier!), I thought I would share some of my earlier projects. They were all done quite early on in my creative journey, so I hadn't applied some of the gorgeous tricks I have learned since!

Hello and welcome to my blog!

My very first post is dedicated to this week's Just Add Ink challenge. The theme is Just Add Birthdays. I wanted to go all out with this challenge and go beyond an ordinary card. This card opens sideways first, then top & bottom to reveal the final sentiment.