Combination of challenges!

From Adriel:

I'm just posting this real fast without too many details because I'm pressed for time. This card is for two separate challenges... I decided to combine them into one card. The two challenges are: Mojo #51 at Poetic Artistry and Kristina Werner's Inspiration Challenge #21. Lots of work but lots of fun! If I have time later on this evening, I'll post more details about card! Thanks for looking! Let me know what you think!

My First Swap Card

From Adriel:

Hey there! Last month I joined my first swap! For those of you who are wondering what a swap is, it is exactly that! A swap! As far as details go, it is basically you making a certain number of the same thing and then swapping with that same number of people to get that same number of different things back. The swap I joined on SCS was an all occassion SU! card swap, 5+1. This means I made a total of 6 of the same card. The +1 is for the person who hosted this swap. I send her all the cards I made, she disperses all the other swaps she receives to those who participated and keeps one for herself from each participant. So after I send my cards to her and she receives them, she will send me back 5 different cards. I won't receive one of mine back. Pretty fun! I hope I explained that so that it was understandable. Anyway, this "swap" idea is good for anything. People on SCS swap all kinds of things. Card fronts, card candy, ribbon, paper, embellishments, boxes, scrapbook pages, etc. All kinds of things! So, I had never done a swap before and thought, "Why not?!" So I joined and below is my card, which I made 6 of. The due date for these is not until the end of October, but I really should send these soon. I just haven't made it to the post office. Too many other things to do (like making more cards and creative projects)! Without further ado, here is the card I made...

The colors I used for this card were: Sahara Sand CS, Pink Piroutte, So Saffron, Bravo Burgundy, & Very Vanilla. I got this color combination idea from the Stampin' Up! catalog from the DS paper, Parisian Summer. I don't have the paper, but LOVE the colors.

I used the Sprinkles set with versamark and clear embossing powder for the background on the Pink Piroutte. Used the new scallop edge punch A LOT on this card, as you can see. The sentiment is from the All Holidays set and stamped in Bravo Burgundy ink. Attached the a Very Vanilla square and attached to card with dimensionals. I used the Boho Blossoms punch for the flowers and added pearl stickers (purchased at Michael's) to the middle of each of the flowers. That just added such a touch of elegance! Love those pearls! Finally, the satin cream ribbon is also from Michael's (a spool of it was $1!), and I made a bow with it. The only thing I don't like about that ribbon is it frays so easily, as you can see in the pic. I'll trim that before I send these off. If you have a tip to keep the satin ribbon from fraying, please share!

Anyway, that's the card! Let me know what you think! Being my first swap, I'm hoping it is up to par with what others do for this swap. Thanks for looking!

A Fun Party Favor!

From Adriel:

Hi there! I hope you all enjoyed your long weekend. We enjoyed ours with our family and friends. We got the ping-pong table out and had some fun with that. My dad spend this weekend building a wall craft storage thingy in the craft room at my parents' house. It looks so nice! I will have to put a picture of what he did on here when I get a chance. He did a great job and it will make the creating process so much easier with everything nicely organized and at our fingertips. So a BIG thank you to my dad!

Onto the subject of my post... a fun party favor! These little things are apparently called "Sour Cream Containers". Click here for the tutorial on SCS. I've wanted to try this out for awhile and had some time last week. These were fairly simple and quick to make. My kids wanted to make one, too, so I helped them put theirs together and they decorated them afterwards. Jacob gave his to Daddy and it got opened and thrown away before we got a picture. Here's mine and Kayla's. Kayla did a cute job decorating hers. Anyway, it was a fun project and one that the kids enjoyed making also.

All this is in preparation for the classes we will doing at Tumbleweed Rec Center during the winter through Parks & Rec for Chandler. We'll be doing a party favor class where we will be teaching participants how to make all kinds of different party favors. It should be a lot of fun!

Thanks for stopping by and looking! Have a great day!

Robson Library

From Heidi...

For anyone who attended Saturday's class and wanted the tutorial for this card and didn't receive it, please email me and I will send it to you. I saw this card posted on Stampin' Up's showcase, so I don't take credit for it's originality. This is a very fun card to make, especially if you like gluing and doing puzzles.

Vote Today!

From Adriel:

No, I'm not confused! I'm not talking about voting for the next president. I'm talking about the handbag challenge #4 on Theresa's blog! Yes, I need your votes... again! I've got competition this week and it's fierce! In addition, this week's challenge was, well, challenging. I know, I know, that's the point! Maybe I should say, super-duper challenging. Anyway, here's a memory refresher for you on my entry this week:

To vote, simply click here and post a comment for your favorite. Thanks for looking and for voting! Have a great day!

Handbag Challenge #4

From Adriel:

Well, it's that time of the week again! Time to show you my creation for the handbag challenge on Theresa's blog. First, let me show you the inspiration. It might help you understand what I made better. If you see what I made without seeing the inspirational piece, you may wonder what's wrong with me! Here is the handbag:

Okay, so when I saw this I was like, "Right!" These colors are just not "me" naturally speaking. I have never done anything with yellow and black! I thought about it yesterday a few times. I didn't spend much time thinking, because I didn't come up with anything when I did! LOL! Anyway, last night while surfing the creative corners of the WWW, I came across a video tutorial on an adorable purse made with punches! Once I saw that, an idea began to form in my mind for what I was going to do and this is what I came up with. How about we call it the bumblebee card? That's what I think of when I see it!

Hmmmm, I'm not crazy about what I ended up with, but it's fine. Honestly, it looks much better IRL, but all I've got are the pics that didn't come out all that great! It'll have to do...

The purse is made from a 1-1/2" square of black CS and a 1-1/2" circle of black CS. I coated both of these with black craft ink then covered with clear embossing powder and heat embossed. I cut small strips of the light yellow CS and coated those with versamark and clear embossing powder and heat embossed those. I then assembled the purse according to the directions in the tutorial (previously mentioned). I wanted to capture the glossy look of the purse in the inspirational piece. I also used a square silver brad for the "clasp" and the handle is some ribbon that's been lying around. The rest of the card is pretty basic: 3x3 light yellow (I have no idea where I got the yellow, but I was so thankful for it because none of SU!'s yellows were the right hue), black square with corners notched with a hole punch, white square with corners notched, black sheer ribbon, dimensionals. It was challenging, but I enjoyed myself and got to try that fun purse tutorial! Hopefully, if anything, you'll check out the purse tutorial and get some inspiration from that! Thanks for looking!

Paper Piecing Card

From Adriel:

Hi! I have been wanting to try this technique (paper piecing) for quite awhile and finally sat down the other day and did it. This is my first attempt, so nothing to get too excited about, but it was still fun. I'm working on another card with this same technique and I'll share that when I'm done. If you want to know more about this technique, check out the tutorial over at SCS.

Recipe:

Certainly Celery CS
Tempting Turquoise CS
Whisper White CS
DS paper (Flowers for You)

In Full Bloom set
Basic Black classic ink
Certainly Celery Stampin'Write marker
Bashful Blue Stampin'Write marker
White satin ribbon
Tombow adhesive

I stamped the flower and stem images on Whisper White CS. I then stamped the flower images on DS paper and cut them out. I used Tombow adhesive to adhere my flowers to the Whisper White CS. I put the cut flowers on right where the image was stamped on the Whisper White CS. I used the Stampin' Write markers to color in the stems, leaves and the little dots around the images. I took a strip of Certainly Celery cut the same size as the Whisper White panel and cut little lines into one edge of it to resemble grass. I guess it does... I guess it's more interesting than a flat piece of CS. Anyway, tied the ribbon around into a bow, attached the panel with dimensionals to the Tempting Turquoise panel. Assembled the rest of the card as you can see in the pic. It was a fun technique to try! I really enjoyed it!

BTW, I think my mom did a GREAT job on all the Christmas cards she posted! Good job, Mom!

Christmas in the Summer?

From Heidi...

It was a little difficult to think Christmas cards today, especially when it's in the 100's, but we have some Christmas SAS coming up, so it might be helpful to have some cards to make, right? We thought we'd be needing some Christmas stamp sets, but I took the morning to get a little organized and stamped all our Christmas stamps onto white CS and was pleasantly surprised at how many Christmas stamps we actually have. The following cards are the results of my Christmas stamping afternoon. I used an idea from Stampin' Success magazine for the white card.

More Inspiration...

From Adriel:

Hi there! Check out the newest additions to our "More Inspiration for You" list:

my stamp lady blog

Theresa's blog

Anthonette's blog

&

inking addict

These blogs have some great ideas!

Enjoy your day!

Stamped Candle

From Adriel:

Here's the stamped candle that I mentioned last week! Isn't this fun? It is fairly simple to do, with great results! These would make a great gift for anyone!

Here's some links for tutorials and ideas!

Tutorial on SCS (this is not the way I did mine, but this way is cute, too. I will have to try it sometime)

Tutorial I used (scroll down to post for 6/12/08)

Another tutorial

Pictures of stamped candles

More pictures of stamped candles

Enjoy your day!

Need Your Votes Again!

From Adriel:

Yes, it's that time of the week again! I have been participating in the handbag challenges on Theresa Forster's blog these past 3 weeks. I've had it easy the other times because I was the only entry. This week there were two entries: mine and Anthonette's! I consider Anthonette to be a very worthy (somewhat intimidating) opponent... her entry is awesome! Yikes!

Anyway, you can check out the two entries and vote by clicking here. Thanks and have a nice day!

BTW...

Forgot to mention that there is a link on the side to our September newsletter. Daniel (brother to Adriel/son to Heidi) made this possible, so a BIG "thank you!" to Daniel for his help!

Handbag Challenge #3

From Adriel:

Here's my entry for Theresa Forster's Handbag Challenge #3! I had a lot of fun with this one. For one, I LOVED the colors! I used Creamy Caramel, Brilliant Blue, and Whisper White. I saw a pocket fold card on someone's blog yesterday, and they had a link to the tutorial on SCS. What a fun thing to make! Anyway, enjoy and thanks for looking!

Cards We Did Last Week

From Adriel:

As promised, here are the cards we did at our last 5 for $5.



We did two of this card. This card used some of the new in-colors: Pacific Point, Riding Hood Red, Tangerine Tango and Kiwi Kiss. We used the Wow Flowers set along with some of the in-colors inks. The stamped image on the white cardstock was punched out with a circle punch and dimensioned on the card.


This card we used a couple of the in-colors as well: Baja Breeze and Pink Pirouette, along with Whisper White, Chocolate Chip and Certainly Celery. We used the new hostesss set, Window Dressing, which was perfect for the watercolor technique we used on this card.


This card was made using Sketch Challenge #79 on SCS and was based on this card, which used DS paper in the layout. I was looking for a way to use DS paper, so this layout and card were great to follow. The card we made used Whisper White CS, Certainly Celery CS, Tempting Turquoise CS, and retired DS paper (Flowers for You) from the old catalog. We used the Thoroughly Thankful set and used the Stampin' Write markers to color in the image in the varied colors.


The colors for this card were Mellow Moss, Barely Banana, Cameo Coral, and Chocolate Chip. We used three different sets for this card: Good Things Grow (retired), Sprinkles, and Fundamental Phrases. We used the Sprinkles set to versa mark the background. The saying is from Fundamental Phrases and the square image is from Good Things Grow, punched out with the 1-3/8" square punch. We used hemp thread to make the card a little more interesting.

Thanks for looking! Our next 5 for $5 is September 12, from 1-3pm. Let us know if you would like to join us! Have a wonderful day!

Hey!

From Adriel:

Hi there! I keep putting off taking pictures of some of the stuff we've been working on! Last Friday we did a 5 for $5 class, and the cards turned out so cute! I will post pics of them soon! Yesterday I did a candle! Yes! That was pretty exciting! You can stamp on candles and it is so easy to do and the results are wonderful! Anyway, I will share a picture of that soon also. My mom was working on a gate-fold card yesterday along with a cool sponging technique. I like how her card turned out! So, a whole bunch of new stuff and no pictures! However, I mentioned a week or two ago some of the projects that were in the making. One of them was this altered lunch box tin. What do you think? I think I'm going to embellish it a little to give it more character, but I thought I would share this picture anyway. I don't know if I would use it for carrying my lunch around, but it is a perfect size for keeping cards in!

Also, we're getting the September newsletter ready to send out soon, so be looking for that in a few days. If you have provided us with your email address, you will more than likely be receiving the newsletter via email this month. This helps us save a little money and also keeps your paper mail clutter down. If you prefer to receive a hard copy of our newsletter via snail mail, please let us know!

I was encouraged by this verse today: "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!" Philippians 4:4

From Heidi:

I love this new hostess set "Serene Spring". I've been waiting to have some time to play with this set, which I was able to do Saturday. I used two different color palettes with these cards I also used water coloring on both of them. My dad was a watercolorist and I have several of his paintings hanging in my house. He tutored me for a short time, but I haven't done much with what he taught me until this weekend. I'm looking forward to using this technique on my cards. It's such a fun medium to use to bring color to cards. I enjoyed getting back into it on these two cards.I embossed the blue card, which I wish I hadn't done, it seemed to drown out the watercoloring. Oh well... it was still fun to make.

Ingredients: Card 1 -Serene Spring SS; So Saffron, Barely Blush, Whisper White CS; Staz=On black, So Saffron, Barely Blush, Bashful blue, Certainly Celery Ink; Scallop edge punch, Fabric flower, punched Barely blush flower, So saffron brad, Barely Blush inked ribbon, sponges, blender pens; Card 2 - Serene Spring, Wonderful Words SS; Bashful blue, Almost Artichoke, Mostly Moss, Sahara Sand, Whisper White CS; Really Rust, Bashful blue, mostly moss, Sahara Sand, Staz-On black ink; Embossing powder, heat gun, Scallop edge punch, grosgrain ribbon, sponges, blender pens.

Today Adriel and I worked on some new cards and projects for our upcoming classes at Tumbleweed Park and Recreation Center this December through February. We're trying out our new project ideas. Adriel stamped and decorated a great looking candle, and I worked on a Gate Fold card using sponging, while trying out some new colors together.

I made a fun card a few weeks ago for my grandson's birthday (Adriel's son) using an idea I saw on SCS where someone had used punches to make some Sesame Street characters. I love how it turned out and I had such a great time gluing all the little pieces together to create the fun characters. I must have been successful because the kids both knew who the characters were...so that's a good thing!

Please Vote!

From Adriel:

Hi there! Well, I was the only one to enter in Theresa's Handbag Challenge AGAIN this week, so I'm the weekly winner! (For more info about my winning entry on the right, view yesterday's post.) Really, if you like challenges, consider participating in next week's challenge! She has some great prizes she's giving away.


Anyway, I need votes for my winning entry! Click here to leave a comment on Theresa's blog about my entry to vote for it. Voting ends Sunday at 7pm. Thanks for your consideration and thanks for looking!

Handbag Challenge #2

From Adriel:

Here's my submission for Theresa Forseth's Handbag Challenge #2! When I saw the colors I thought of my daughter, Kayla. She has dark brown eyes and hair and she loves pink! So, I decided to do a scrapbook page of her with a pink shirt on! I haven't done a full-scale scrapbook page for years, so I've been out of the whole scrapbooking thing, but I wanted to do something with this picture and I really like how it turned out!

I used the all new Pink Pirouette along with Chocolate Chip CS. I had some Berry Bliss DS paper that went really well with the color theme. The ribbon from Bobbin is double-sided and has pink on one side and is reversed with brown on the other. It reminded me of the ribbon on the handbag. I used a huge flower from Heidi Swapps and made my own flowers from punches. I also embellished with chipboard letters and photo corners, along with rhinestones. The chipboard letters were a crazy deal at Target a couple of weeks ago. A pack of 55 alphabet letters was $1!!!!!!! They were even covered in this cute pink polka dot paper! Anyway, they worked great for this page! I enjoyed making this page and getting back into scrapbooking. Thanks for looking! Check back to Theresa's blog in a couple days to vote!

Just a Peek!

From Adriel:

Here's a peek at a couple of the cards we will be making at our upcoming Stamp-a-Stack/5 for $5. We'll be using a new set from the all new Fall/Winter Catalog along with some of the new in-colors. You don't want to miss making these cards and more!


There are a few spots left for this class! The class is this coming Friday, August 15, from 1-3pm. The cost is $5 for 5 cards! Don't miss it! Contact us today to sign up!

Thank You!

From Adriel:

I just wanted to thank those of you that voted for my entry. I appreciate your votes so much! So THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!!!!! I'm currently working on some fun new things. One of them is a swap I joined on SCS! It's my first one and I'm excited about it. I'll post the cards when I am done with them. Another is altering a tin... making a file folder organizer... coming up with a couple cards for our next 5 for $5. I haven't actually started on the last three that I mentioned, but the ideas for them are forming in my head! Anyway, my main purpose today for posting was to thank you for your votes! Here's a a picture of beautiful sunflower to brighten your day!

A Favor to Ask...

From Adriel:

Hello there! I have a favor to ask anyone out there! You know the handbag challenge on Theresa Forseth's blog that I posted about on Thursday? Well, I won for this week's challenge! I know that sounds exciting, and it is, but it's not saying much about my creative talent since I was the ONLY entry. Nevertheless, I won a package of SU! Fresh Cuts notecards and I'm pretty happy about that! My winning entry is on the right!

Anyway, this is a 12-week-long challenge. Every week has a different challenge, inspired by a different handbag each week. The way Theresa has this challenge worked out is that each challenger receives a point just for participating. She takes the first 5 challenges she receives and also picks her own 5 and among those 10, readers can vote for their favorite one. Each vote in favor of a certain entry is another point. The entry with the most points for that week wins a weekly prize. In addition, the entry with the most points at the end of the 12-week challenge wins the grand prize! (More details here)

So, what's the favor? Would you consider voting for my entry? All you have to do is comment at the end of the post on Theresa's blog about my entry. (If you click on the link to the left, it will take you to the correct post where you can vote.) You can comment anonymously if you do not have a blog or wish to remain unknown.

I thank you all ahead of time for your consideration! I hope this will get someone else involved in this challenge! Challenges stretch my creativity so much and make me think outside of the box. I love that! Have a wonderful weekend and thanks for looking!

Handbag Challenge

From Adriel:

This is a first... at least I think it is... for me anyway! This is my second post in the same day! I have a good reason for this.

Theresa Forseth is hosting a weekly challenge on her blog for the next 12 weeks. What's the inspiration? Purses/Handbags! How fun is that? So, this is my submission for this week's challenge.

This is a cute "handbag" giftbag with a matching "wallet", which is actually a giftcard holder. When I went onto SCS today, I saw Wednesday's tutorial was for the diaperfold. This was perfect for what I had in mind for this challenge! I changed it a little bit (folded both triangles down instead of just one and also used the "back" for the front). I also added handles, since this is a handbag. I didn't use DS paper, but used River Rock CS for the purse base, then used strips of colored CS to decorate the front to mimic the inspirational piece. I tried to incorporate some stitching into this project, so I just drew marker lines with a brown Stampin' Write marker. It did the job. I'm a sucker for flowers and had to include them in my project! The "wallet" opens to hold a giftcard. I didn't have any giftcard holders on hand, so I just measured a credit card and made a holder based on those measurements.

The scalloped brown panel inside is actually a pocket. The giftcard slides in at the top and fits perfectly!

The colors I used for this challenge were river rock, baja breeze, tangerine tango, chocolate chip, pink passion, night of navy (or something very similar), and whisper white. I would've liked to have gotten some gold in there, but didn't have any gold. So this will have to do! Hope you enjoyed looking!

BTW, please excuse the photos! I had to use a different computer and didn't have access to my photo software or watermark image. I thought about if I needed to put Stampin' Up! on there, since I didn't use any stamps or DS paper, but thought I would just to be safe.

Birthday Calendar

From Adriel:

Mom showed you all her birthday calendar a few days ago. Now it's my turn!

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that we went on a little trip up to a cabin. My mom brought along the supplies to make this fun project. So we spent one afternoon working on these and put the finishing touches on them when we got back. They were a lot of fun to make and I love the results!

I used a lot of different materials for this project. First of all, this whole thing started out as just a plain old file folder! After folding it this way and that, it was all ready to decorate! I first inked all the edges of the folder... I didn't really like the light yellow look of the file folder with my paper. I cut my DS paper to size and inked all those edges, too. Then I attached all my paper. I used rubons, chipboard, brads, ribbon, sticky tape, stamps... I'm sure I forgot something! Anyway, it was fun to make! Thanks for looking!

Stamp-A-Stack, Aug. 15

From Heidi:
Just reminding everyone about our Stamp-A-Stack coming up next Friday, Aug. 15. We make 5 cards for $5. We have some fun cards planned, using the new stamp set "Wow Flowers" along with the new "In-Colors". We just received SU's new Fall/Winter catalog, so the catty's will be available for you to browse through or take one home for $7. They've added some nice stamp sets, along with new Scrappin' and card kits. My favorite item is the "Build A Brad". You punch a 1/2" circle of Designer Series paper or stamp a custom image to build your own brad! Very fun!

Christmas in August

From Adriel:

I made some Christmas cards the other day. I know, I know. August! Christmas! I did this partly to get a couple done to sell on ebay. I thought there may be some early birds on there looking for Christmas cards. My reasoning probably seems silly... I'm a silly gal!

Anyway, onto the cards! My colors: whisper white, basic gray, old olive, ruby red, and bravo burgundy. I used whisper white CS for the base of the card, my next layer is basic gray, and then after that is the layer of either old olive or ruby red (depending on the card). This layer is stamped with the thingy from the Wow Flowers set... it kinda looked like a snowflake to me! Again, I'm a silly gal! I stamped the "snowflake" with versamark and embossed with clear embossing powder. It made a really nice background, snowflake or not! Moving on, my bravo burgundy strip is scallop punched on the bottom edge (yes, using the NEW scallop edge punch!), and attached to the various layers. A beautiful basic gray taffeta ribbon is tied around the burgundy strip before all these layers are attached to the white card base. The sentiment/stamped image which is really a snowflake FOR REAL, was stamped with whisper white craft ink and then embossed with this "Winter Wonderland" embossing powder I had on hand (no, not SU). Punched out with the scallop circle punch, with another scallop circle punch in gray behind. Attached with dimensionals and that's it!

So, perhaps today you will be going about your day and you will find yourself humming your favorite Christmas tune or maybe you'll be thinking about all those Christmas cards you need to send out... and you will wonder, "Why am I thinking about Christmas in August?!?!?!" Well, you can thank little old me! Bye for now!

Little Things Make Life Big

From Adriel:

This is a card I made a couple of days ago. It is a monochromatic card and has LOTS of layers! The colors I used for this card were whisper white CS, not quite navy CS, and the new in-color, baja breeze CS. I started with a whisper white base for the card. I used baja breeze CS on top of the card base. I added silver brads to the corners of the baja breeze CS. I didn't have the ticket corner punch, so I just used my 1/2" circle punch to punch the corners out of the whisper white CS and not quite navy CS panels. I attached these to the baja breeze with SNAIL. I tied some 1/4" white grosgrain ribbon around this finished panel, then I used dimensionals to attach the baja breeze panel to the whisper white card base.

I used a set I haven't used in awhile: Happy Harmony. I REALLY like this set! I wish it was a permanent set, because it is really lovely! Anyway, stamped the "flower" (I think it's a dandelion) on baja breeze in whisper white craft ink. I used some "winter wonderland" embossing powder (not SU) that we've had hanging around. It added a nice shiny sparkle to the image! As you can see, I put a white layer under this stamped image. I used dimensionals to attach to card. My sentiment is stamped on whisper white CS in not quite navy classic ink. I attached this to an ever-so-slightly larger piece of not quite navy CS, then a piece baja breeze CS, and finally to a larger piece of whisper white CS that I scallop punched only two edges of. I dimensioned this even more than my image.

Anyway, wanted to share that with you! Have a wonderful day! And remember...it's the little things that make life BIG!