Harvest Of Hope

I took last week's sketch challenge and altered it just a bit. Instead of having just an oval in the center, I changed that to a square with rounded sides and popped up my image with a scalloped oval.

I chose to also use a set that needed to see some ink...Harvest of Hope. Since I was using some background paper from the Spring Mat Stack from Die Cuts With A View, I wanted to keep my coloring soft to match the paper.

I chose to use my prismacolor pencils and blended them with one of my blender markers. The wheelbarrow image is stamped twice on Stampin Up! vanilla cardstock in memento tuxedo black in with one image punched out using the Marvy Giga scallop punch. I sponged Stampin Up! apricot appeal ink lightly around the edges of the punched layer, again to match the matted backghround, and layered it over the colored wheelbarrow that was also popped up on dimensionals. I then added some bling with Stampendous Class-A-Peel's stickers and a ribbon bow by Martha Stewart.

Here's a close up of the dimension:

Stamps: MFT Harvest of Hope
Cardstock: Stampin Up! Sage Shadow, Apricot Appeal, Vanilla, Die Cuts With A View
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin Up! Apricot Appeal
Accessories: Prismacolor Pencils, Prismacolor Blender Marker, Dimensionals, Marvy Giga Scallop Punch, Sponge, Stampendous Class-A-Peels Stickers, Martha Stewart Ribbon Bow,

Chocolate Bunny

Last week's My Favorite Challenge was to use a stamp set that hasn't seen any ink yet.

For my challenge submission I chose MFT's Chocolate Bunny. I love this Flopsy image looks so relaxed in his recliner just popping chocolates into his mouth. I chose to make my card in MFT's signature colors - pink & brown.

Flopsy was stamped in memento tuxedo black twice on MFT Perfect Panels and colored with Prismacolor markers. One image was cut out and popped up on dimensionals after outlining Flopsy in cool grey 10% so he "stood out" a bit. I stippled Stampin Up! close to cocoa around the edges of the images to distress it a bit. I added a some ribbon from Jody, MFT Chocolate Kiss designer paper, primas with MFT's new jeweled brads.

Here is a close up of the dimension:

Stamps: MFT Chocolate Bunny Cardstock: Stampin Up! Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, Regal Rose, MFT Perfect Panels, Chocolate Kiss Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin Up! Close to Cocoa
Accessories: Primas, MFT Jeweled Brads, Glue Dots, Ribbon, Prismacolor Markers, Dimensionals

Kim's Boutique

Welcome once again. I know it's been a while since I've blogged. Going back to work after being off for three months interferes with stamping way too much.

Last month MFT came out with the My Favorite Kits, Just Add Color so our gracious forum hostess Kim, allowed the design team to give us junkies another challenge. The new monthly MFT Kit Challenge comes out the third Wednesday of the month and will end the at 10:00am the day before the new monthly release.

For my entry this month, I took the August kit and wanted to make it look like my shopper was walking by a store window or had just come out of the boutique from purse shopping. Now who better to have as a proprietor than our own MFT Lady herself, Kim!

I started off by stamping my box with my buddy Dawn's stamp set Damask Designs in PTI pure poppy for the background. Hmmm, wonder if the boutique has a long line to get into it too? **snicker** Now there's an inside joke in the MFT forum with the junkies, because at CHA the MFT DT kept going back to the PTI CHA booth to do some shopping and from what I understand the line to get in was very, very, very long....like an hour long.

I then stamped my shopper twice on MFT panels in memento black so I could cut out one shopper later and pop up on dimensionals and teeny tiny pop dots. I also stamped the purses from Totally Fantastic, and awning from Meet Me At The Cafe on MFT perfect panels in memento black then colored everything with prismacolor markers & cute out what I needed to so I could create my little scene.

Here's a close up of all of the dimension.

The tiny mini brads & ribbon also come with the August kit. The letters are from a Target $1 stamp set. This kit, or something like it, would be perfect for a teen/wife/girlfriend birthday to put a gift card in, or some small items for a purse.


I'm looking forward to using the rest of my kit.


Stamps: MFT August Kit, Totally Fantastic, Putting On The Glitz, Meet Me At The Cafe, PTI Damask Designs
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, PTI Pure Poppy
Cardstock: MFT Perfect Panels, Stampin Up! Black, MFT Kit
Accessories: Ribbon, Brads, Mini Pop Dots, Glue Dots, Prismacolor Markers, Dimensionals

Reading Rocks!

Since school has started for my kiddos, and I'm now back to work too, I'm a little late posting my card for last week's My Favorite Challenge. For the challenge we had to do a back to school theme. That was so easy for me because both of my kids love to read.

So I printed off some Stephanie Fizer digital paper, and used the I Heart Books set to go with it. I stamped the boy reading twice on MFT perfect panels and then colored him with prismacolor markers. The second image I only colored the book so it could be cut out and popped up on it's own.

Then I sponged Stampin Up! so saffron dye ink around him before layering and set aside to work on the card. With the digital paper being it's own layer onto chocolate chip cardstock, then onto the pumpkin pie card, I added some MFT polka dot red ribbon into the mix. After that I added my reading boy on All Night Media pop dots so it would sit over the ribbon. Finally, I added the book popped up on dimensionals; making a total of three layers on the card.

Here's a close up of the layered reading boy.

Now I turned my attention to the inside of the card, something I rarely do, but was inspired to with this one. Stamping my blackboard, teacher, hat, and books in memento ink, coloring and cutting out, I then added them to the inside. This way I can add my sentiment to the blackboard depending on the occasion as shown below.

One of my most favorite sentiments to put in back to school cards is from the Staples commercial that was shown a few years ago. It was done to the Christmas song "It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year". You remember the one where the dad, or mom, is happily filling the shopping basket with supplies while the kids drag their feet behind with heads hung down? That was before their silly button commercials took over.

Back to school for parents is truely The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year! Let's sing it now!!!!

Celebrate MFT August 09!

Well hello everyone! Thought I dropped off the face of the earth did ya? Nope. I went back to work after taking family leave for three months to take care of my husband after he broke his left ankle in three places. Nasty, really nasty if you ask me, and I work in a hospital too.

Ok, the 20th of every month is Celebrate MFT day. Last month, I was honored to be asked to participate in the first customer blog hop. This month, the group of MFT Junkies that were the "hoppers" did an awesome job with their projects and I totally applaud them.

For my project, I chose a set that needed some love, Owls For All Seasons. These little owls are so cute. I stamped them in memento black and then colored them with prismacolor markers. Now for the leaves, I used three different colors of memento ink (new sprout, bamboo leaves, pear tart) before cutting out the branch part of the way so it would hang over my ribbon a bit. I also wanted it to match a prior sketch challenge MFTSC94 that I needed to catch up on as well. Once my coloring was done, and my background stamping was done, I popped up the owls on All Night Media pop dots and added some primas and ribbon to finish everything off.

Easy peasy!

As The Deer

As the deer panteth for the water, So my soul longeth after Thee..., and so continues the song.

When I first saw this image a couple of months ago from Our Daily Bread Designs, I knew I just had to have it in my collection sometime. Once I showed it to my husband, he said I needed it now!! However, it's taken me a couple of months to get the set inked up. I knew when I inked it up for the first time, I wanted to do so with the music in the background but have not been able to find the song anywhere. I even went through my mother-in-law's old hymnals from her piano bench. Fortunately, my pastor had the music and was kind enough to scan it and email it to me.

This particular music has been special to me for a long time for several reasons. One, when my mother was alive she would sing this song while playing the organ and she had a beautiful voice. Two, my late brother in law used to sing this song as well as a special while in church from time to time. Gary also had a magnificent voice. Three, it's soothing to me and reminds me of the 23rd Psalm when life is rough and seems like it's just more than I can handle sometimes; like now after the bombshell that was dropped on me last night by my son which I won't go into for his privacy.

I stamped, and made the card, yesterday while having a raging migraine and on vicodin for the migraine since I was out of my other migraine meds. With this in mind, I'm extremely pleased with the way it's turned out especially since it's one of the few times I've gone "shabby chic" on the entire card.

I started by printing the music out on vanilla cardstock, scaled back by 65% so it would fit on the 6x6 card. Then I tore the edges off around the music before stippling Tim Holtz old paper distress ink all over the music to give it a "vintage" look. Once I was done with that I then stippled a second ink, Tim Holtz walnut stain distress ink around the torn edges before layering on Stampin Up! chocolate chip cardstock and tearing those edges, stippling again, and curling the stippled edges up to give more of an older, more vintage, look.

After that, I stamped the stream and deer on vanilla cardstock in Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored everything with Prismacolor pencils and used a Prismacolor blender marker to smooth the colors out instead of gamsol or mineral spirits due to my asthma and the smell the other two leave. Once my coloring was done, I then stippled Stampin Up! soft sky dye ink to fill in the sky and edges, green galore around the grassy edges, and bashful blue around the water's edge. This way the stippling gave the image more definition before layering on the card as shown below.

Now it was time to assemble the card and put all of my layers together. First, I stamped my background in Stampin Up! green galore by using the saying included in the set from Psalm 23:2 "He Leads me beside quiet waters, He restores my soul!" Then I added my song layers, some Basic Grey Mellow fibers I found I still had in my stash (can't believe that!), then my main image layers popped up on All Night Media pop dots with vintage brads already on it. I had decided at the last minute to "rough up" the sides of the image, so I pulled out my Stampin Up! distressing tool, but could only get to part of the chocolate chip cardstock because of the pop dots. No problem! Isn't that what fingernails are for? So I ran my thumbnail along the sides that hadn't been roughed up yet to match the song layers. Perfect!!

However, something was still missing. Aha! Primas!! Can't have a stream or a card in the woods without primas or flowers of some kind, can we? So I pulled out every red looking flower bottle, tin, etc I could find in my stash and started matching up primas to the red in the Basic Grey fibers already tied onto the card. Once I found some that matched, the only problem I then had was what to put into the middle. Once again, problem solved. Since my deer had vintage brads in the corners, why couldn't my primas have vintage brads? Well, since I had already put the card together, that now meant putting holes in a finished card, but oh well, life happens sometimes. As for the prima on the deer layer, since there was already a brad next to it, I pulled out some gem stickers from Michael's and found a gem that matched the fibers and brads to put into the middle.

Now since, the front of my card looked so good, I decided to make the inside be finished off as well this time; which is normally not something I usually do. So I once again stamped the verse from Psalm 23:2 in Stampin Up! garden green dye ink, then sponged an embossed leaf die cut I had received from my secret sister in Round 1 with Stampin Up! garden green dye ink as well to give it a finished look as well before adding the prima with a gem sticker. (see below)

So what do you think? Like I've said earlier in the post, I'm really happy with the way my card has turned out especially since I was on migraine meds. Since I've got another rebound migraine today, it still looks good to me. I have found though, I'm falling in love with Our Daily Bread Designs stamp sets very easily. They could become addictive.

Another thing I've found out this weekend, is that we should make God addictive in our lives as well. Is He in yours?

Stamps: Our Daily Bread Designs Quiet Waters
Cardstock: Stampin Up! Garden Green, Chocolate Chip, Vanilla
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin Up! Garden Green, Bashful Blue, Soft Sky, Green Galore, Tim Holtz Distress Inks Walnut Stain & Old Paper
Accessories: Stipple Brushes, Sponge, All Night Media Pop Dots, Zots Glue Dots, Basic Grey Mellow Fibers, Prismacolor Pencils & Blender Marker, Vintage Brads, Computer, Die Cuts, Gem Stickers, Prima Flowers

Better Late Than Never

Hi all. I'm running a wee bit behind with the MFT sketch challenges. Made this card last week, but with a recent death in the family I was unable to post it until now.

Now how about that bookworm? Isn't he sooooo cute? He's part of MFT's August release from Stephanie Fizer called I Heart Books. Now I had thought he would be darling sitting under a tree reading his favorite book. The tree is also from MFT's August release and Stephanie Fizer Grow Love Plant A Tree.

After stamping my bookworm on MFT Perfect Panels, I masked him and stamped the tree behind, then the leaves and colored everything with Prismacolor markers. Once that was done, I then sponged Stampin Up! green galore dye ink inside the leaves to fill in any white spaces that were left over before layering. The sun was stamped, colored then cut out before adding to the center of a prima daisy in the upper right hand corner to "mimic" the location of the sun in the late afternoon.

I then added some ribbon I had gotten from Jody, brads, and then the felt butterfly which is part of a Michael's $1 bin felt ribbon roll.

A real simple and cute card that didn't take hardly any time at all to make.

Stamps: MFT Grow Love Plant A Tree, I Heart Books
Cardstock: Brilliant Blue, White, Summer Sun, Riding Hood Red
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin Up Bashful Blue, Green Galore
Accessories: Sponge, Stipple Brushes, Prismacolor Markers, Prima, Dimensional, Glue Dots, Ice Stickles, Ribbon, Felt Ribbon

Mother Teresa's Water Lily - MTTI 05

Hello again. Second post today. I'm loving the colors for this week's My Time To Create Inspiration challenge. Now I saw the colors as: turquoise, bright pink, bright green, and blush. Not too sure if they were the intended colors, but oh well.


For this challenge, I just had to use a stamp set I've had from Our Daily Bread called Mother Teresa. The sayings from Mother Teresa in the set paired with the water lily image are just perfect for any color combo, and especially this one.

I started by stamping on my card with Stampin Up! Green Galore ink to create a subtle background and then again on the Stampin Up! Tempting Turquoise layer. The main image was stamped in Memento Tuxedo black ink twice and colored with prismacolor markers with one image cut out to be popped up on dimensionals later. Once I was done coloring, I softly stippled Stampin Up! Bashful Blue ink and sponged Stampin Up! Blush Blossom ink around the water lily before layering on Pixie Pink.

I stamped my saying in the same Memento Tuxedo black ink and stippled & sponged again, before layering once more on a Pixie Pink scrap. Now that the basics of the card was done, I then added my cut out lily on dimensionals and some pink metallic faux brad stickers I had found at Joann's about a year ago (and still had) before sponging Stamping Up! Green Galore ink around the card to finish it off.

Stamps: Mother Teresa from Our Daily Bread Designs

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin Up! Bashful Blue, Green Galore, Tempting Turquoise, Blush Blossom

Cardstock: Stampin Up! Green Galore, Tempting Turquoise, Pixie Pink scraps, White

Accessories: Prismacolor Markers, Dimensionals, Pink Faux Brad Stickers, Stipple Brush, Sponge

What's Black, White & A Challenge This Week?

The answer would be this week's My Favorite Challenge over on Splitcoast. However, I must be color blind because I went with a vanilla and black base combo with a little bit of red pop.

I had found this really cool flocked background mat stack paper from Die Cuts With A View at Joann's a couple of months back and have been dying to use it, and just haven't yet for some unknown reason. So I figured now would be a good time. Better late than never, right?

There's very little stamping involved with this card. I stamped the scalloped border in memento black before punching it out with the Marvy mega scalloped punch and rubbing PTI vanilla ink on the sides. I then stamped the stems in PTI artichoke ink and the flowers twice in PTI pure poppy ink, cutting one set of flowers out to pop up with dimensionals. After punching my black layer with the Marvy giga scallop punch, I added my red organdy ribbon then the scalloped layers also on dimensionals.

Once done, I had a very simple elegant card finished in under 10 minutes.

Stamps: MFT Bundles of Boquets (inside saying), Punch A Bunch

Cardstock: Stampin Up! Vanilla, Die Cuts With A View Mat Stack

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Ink, PTI Pure Poppy, Artichoke, Vanilla

Accessories: Marvy Giga & Mega Scallop Punches, Stampin Up! Dimensionals, Ribbon

Puppy Love - My Time Sketch Challenge

Hello again. Isn't this image cute!? This stamp is from Stampavie called Fanny's Cuddle Clear Stamps. I had such a blast coloring this little girl and her puppy too.

I started out by stamping my image in memento tuxedo black on white paper and then coloring everything with prismacolor markers; allowing my background designer paper to determine the colors used, before stippling Stampin Up! bashful blue dye ink around my little girl & the edges. I then popped the image up using All Night Media pop dots to add some dimension to the card.


Once all of the elements of the sketch were in place, including the white grossgrain ribbon, I sponged Stampin Up! barely banana dye ink around the edges of the card before adding some K&Co dimensional daisies I found on clearance at Michaels for the final touch.


Here's the sketch from Lauren's blog:

Why don't you give it a try?

Stamps: Stampavie

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin Up! Bashful Blue, Barely Banana

Accessories: Stipple Brush, Sponge, K&Co. Dimensional Daisies, Prismacolor Markers, All Night Media Pop Dots, Grossgrain Ribbon, Glue Dots

Cardstock: Making Memories English Garden Designer Paper, Stampin Up! Barely Banana, Pretty In Pink, White

My Favorite Sketch, Challenge and Sneak Peak!

Can you believe it's week TEN of the My Favorite Challenge over on Splitcoast? My have the weeks gone by since the My Favorite Idol contest.

This week's challenge was to reach within our inner Julie HRR's and make a clean and simple card (CAS). You know "embrace the white spaces", one layer cards, take it easy on the embellies, things like that. Ack!!

Normally this would be hard for me, however, when I started stamping, I started with one layer cards so, it was pretty much easy peasy. I decided to use MFT's Coffee With Flopsy set, 1) Flopsy's just so cute and 2) I wasn't feeling good and some fuzzy slippers sounded so good to me. I stamped Flopsy in memento tuxedo black and colored him with prismacolor markers before stamping the saying above him. Then I added some chocolate Stampin Up! grosgrain ribbon, a prima and some bling to finish the card. Clean and simple.


For my sketch card I decided to use my new VIP set that's due to be released on August 5th called Trick or Treating With Who's That Girl. Isn't this image too cute or what? Of course, this isn't the flopsy release for August, so we'll get TWO flopsy's for August. Whoo, Whoo!!! I stamped my image in memento tuxedo black and colored with prismacolor markers before punching out with the Marvy giga scallop punch and layering on a Stampin Up! green galore jumbo giga scallop punch. My background paper is Karen Foster paper pack I found in the Michaels $1 bin last month. It's such cool paper I have no idea why this pack was in the $1 bin because it's for fall, Halloween, Christmas. Go figure.

I then tied 3 strips of ribbon from the new Halloween ribbon nest coming out with the August release, and let me tell you, that green ribbon is velvet!!! I am going to run out in a hurry! Stamped my saying on scrap white paper before stippling green galore ink over & around it before punching it out with Stampin Up's oval punches and added dots to both the image and saying layers. Added pop dots & dimensionals to both before adding primas & MFT's new jewels coming out and my sketch card is done.

Too cool

Stamps: Coffee With Flopsy, Trick or Treat With Who's That Girl
Cardstock: Stampin Up! Green Galore, Only Orange, Black, White, Karen Foster Designer Paper
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin Up! Green Galore
Accessories: Primas, Ribbon, Glue Dots, All Night Media Pop Dots, Dimensionals, MFT Gems, MFT Halloween Ribbon Nest, Stipple Brush, Prismacolor Markers, Stampin Up! Oval Punches, Marvy Giga & Jumbo Giga Scallop Punches

Christmas In July Again, Um August I Mean.

Merry Christmas again! This is my last batch of catch up cards for the Christmas Card Challenge over on Splitcoast.

I had received this image in an image swap a couple of years ago and I finally got around to coloring in back in May when my husband was in the hospital recovering from ankle fracture surgery. The images were stamped in black in on white cardstock, then colored with Stampin Up! and Close To My Heart markers. I then sponged Stampin Up! garden green ink around the edges before layering with a couple of retired Stampin Up! colors. The background designer paper is a Karen Foster paper I had found in the Michael's $1 bins. This fall/holiday paper pack is so cool, I cannot believe it's in the $1 bins.

Once all of my layering was done, I added some gold brads from Making Memories before punching fir branches from Stampin Up! garden green cardstock & sponging garden green dye ink to give the branches some texture. I added some ribbon & gem stickers to finish off my "bouquet".

Simple and cute.

Stamps: Stampin Up!
Cardstock: Stampin Up! Garden Green, Elegant Eggplant, Marigold Morning, Purely Pomigranete, White, Karen Foster Designer Paper
Ink: Black, Garden Green
Accessories: Martha Stewart Fir Branch Punch, Gem Stickers, Sponge, Markers, Glue Dots, Ribbon