A Little Smooch, A Challenge, and A Lot of Love - Monday Makeover Challenge/Personal Challenge #16

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Hey y'all. Happy Thursday! Hope you all are having a great week. Sorry I missed yesterday, but my daughter's not feeling well and I didn't get home from the hospital until 4:30 am so I slept most of the day. Lol! That's what happens when you're up for 23 hours straight!

Well, for today's card I have a challenge card for you. Now that my buddy Jason's back in Yuma, it's time for me to resume my Personal Challenge cards. For those of you that are new here, I challenged myself at the beginning of the year to do a challenge a week as a way to stretch my creative boundaries. I have to say it's been a lot of fun! I did a few in advance for when he was here, but now it's back to a regular schedule.

This week's card is for Paper-Crafters Library's Monday Makeover Challenge. It's a work from your stash challenge to do your take on a previously done card from their archives.

Here's my challenge card-

Flip-Up card with Summer Smooches DSP and Flowers

When I saw the sketch I knew just what I wanted to do. Love when that happens! Do you just love that DSP? I do! It's only available as a preview this month. After that you'll have to wait until June to get your hands on it. I turned my card on the side from the original card, added the central panel of DSP and added a pull-tab instead of the ribbon. The other change is I made it a flip-card instead of a regular style card.

Here's the challenge inspiration card-

My biggest inspiration for this card is my daughter J. She's going through a rough time right now and I wanted to make something for her that was bright and cheerful and would remind her just how much I love her, unconditionally.

I started with a 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 base piece of Whisper White c/s. When I saw the inspiration piece, the folded ribbons on the edge reminded me of a pull tab and I thought "Why not have the center section lift up to reveal a message hidden underneath?" So that's what I set out to create. This was the first time I've tried something like this and to be honest, I don't think I've seen any others out there like it. I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out but I have to say it works Great!

I used a much smaller piece of DSP than in the inspiration piece and I used it to anchor my focal piece. I used a 3/4" piece of DSP from our Summer Smooches Collection to go across the top. I then took my central piece of DSP from the same and using my Simply Scored Tool I scored it at 3/4", then reinforced that with my bone folder to make the fold crisp. Then I was able to lay it over my anchor piece and it created a flap. I checked it and guess what? It worked!!!! You know what I did then right? Yep- *Happy Dance*

Next came the flowers. Since I didn't plan on putting my sentiment on the center panel, that left more room for flowers. I decided to make 4 and to layer them with all the bright, fun colors in the DSP. I didn't have the die to make the flowers Andrea used so I followed the challenge and worked from my stash. The two smaller flowers are from my BoHo Blossoms Punch, the reminded me of her smaller flower. They were the easiest. I just had to choose the colors I wanted.

For the upper flower I used my Fancy Flower Punch and stamped out 3 different flowers. Then for those of you that know me, I did something very out of the box... I misted the flowers and then crumpled them up. I know shocker right! (Boy the Scaredy Cat in me was working overtime on this card!) I wanted something a little unexpected and for my daughter to see I was trying something that was hard for me, since she's trying something hard right now too. Not nearly the same, but she'll appreciate the symbolism. I rotated the layers so you cold see all the colors and then used Tombow to hold all the layers together. For the bottom flower, I used my Scalloped Circle Punches and instead of crumpling them I used my paper-snips to make individual petals. I used more Tombow to hold the layers together here too (and all the small flowers as well). Instead of brads or jewels for the center I chose to use colored buttons. These are from Stampin Up's Brights collection. J had just been looking at them on Monday night and had told me how much she liked them. I thought they would be the perfect addition to her flowers. :) I adhered them with Mini-Glue Dots and then adhered all the flowers with dimensionals for a little added touch.

Since the ribbons reminded me of a pull tab, that just what I added to the bottom. I used my Rounded Label Punch to create one. Since it's double sided it also eliminated the need to cover up any raw edges on the inside of the card. Score! I then added the sentiment from Teen Tiny Wishes, secured it with more Tombow and the front of my card was done.

Now you know how I like the inside of my cards to have a little something extra besides just the sentiment, since there was no inside, just the space under the flap, that's where it went. I was limited in space, but had just enough room to put the image and sentiment I wanted.

Here's the inside-

I used two stamps from the Sprinkled Expressions set I got for free during Sale-A-Bration. It's not available anymore, so I hope you were able to get your set. It had just the right sentiment. Sometimes we forget to tell those people that are important to us, that we love them just the way they are. I guess we just assume they know how we feel. I added a little bling with my Two-Way Glue Pen and some Dazzling Diamonds and my card was done.

I don't know about you, but I often wonder how many attempts it takes other crafters to get their projects just right and ready to show. I was so excited that this only took one attempt! Especially since it was a new concept for me.

Want to know a secret? I went upstairs, took my pictures and then sat down to write my note to my daughter. I knew it was going to have to be short, so I made it short and sweet and then closed my flap...
I'm sure you can guess what came next. Yep! you could totally see my note at the bottom of the flap. SMH. Back to the drawing board! It was already after 11 at this point, but I went back down to the craft room and set about fixing it. Since my flap was secured to the bottom piece and I wasn't about to re-do the whole card I cut a new base piece to fit just below my DSP piece. I re-stamped the image and the sentiment and secured it over the original base piece and if you didn't know about the boo-boo you probably wouldn't even notice it.

Well, that's my card for today. I hope it inspires you to try something new today, whether it's a new card style like this one or a challenge.

I hope you liked today's card, but I really hope my daughter likes it. I hope you'll take the time today to remind someone you love, just how special they are to you, "just the way they are".

If you liked today's card, please feel free to leave me a comment. I love hearing from you. You can also +1 or Pin it. I've put buttons on my sidebar for your convenience. Friends and followers are also welcome. :)

I hope you'll come back tomorrow for my End of the Week Technique. It's one I haven't tried before.

Till next time-

Remember- Life isn't about Waiting for the storm to pass, but learning to Dance in the rain.

Be Safe,
Shan

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CAS Sprinkled Expressions Shamrock

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Hey y'all. Just a quick post here as it's already after 9pm. Silly me I was working on the card I originally had planned to post today, last night but forgot to take pictures so obviously couldn't post earlier today. Then I came home today and got busy making more cards and mounting stamps and the time just got away from me.

This card is really a step out of the box for me. Which all things considered is kind of funny when you see the card. It's a one layer, Clean and Simple card and it's the first card of it's kind on this blog and the first card I truthfully think I've ever made on my own. Just really not my style.

I know you've probably seen this shamrock done before with this stamp set, but I think I did it just a little differently.

Here's my card-

I started with a base of Whisper White. I used my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig to position the heart from the Sprinkled Expression Stamp set and stamped it 4 times in Garden Green. I then used my Stampin Write Marker in Garden Green to freehand the stem and I sponged the edges of the c/s in the same color.

I used my Two-Way Glue Pen and some Dazzling Diamonds to outline the hearts and to fill in all of the white hearts "negative space" and the front of my card was done. I rocked my stamp ever-so-slightly on my last stamp and left a tiny mark and truthfully wouldn't have kept this card for my blog except my paper-cutter is dull from cutting my magnet sheets and isn't cutting cleanly and it was less stressful for me to leave that mark than to cut more paper. LOL! No, really, you have no idea how unhappy I am that that mark is there. :'(

Here's the inside-

A simple greeting from Teeny Tiny Wishes in Garden Green and the edges sponged in the same color and I thought I was done. At least I tried to be, went to take the picture and everything. But, you know how I like to have the inside be as pretty as the outside, so it was back to the design table (today known as the dining room table) Three little left over hearts and a left over scrap of c/s, some Tombow and voila a pretty little shamrock to make my inside pretty too.

WOW! I think that's just about the quickest  post with pics and everything, that I've ever done!

If you liked today's card, I would love it if you left me a comment. It's great when I get to hear from you! Also, if you liked today's card, please feel free to +1 or Pin it. I've added the buttons to my side-bar for your convenience. Friends and Followers are also welcome. :)

Ok, I hope to see you back tomorrow. I've got a really pretty card for you. Pics are all taken and everything, I promise!

Till next time-

Remember, Life isn't about Waiting for the storm to pass, but learning to Dance in the rain.

Be Safe,
Shan Pin It

A Fun, Quick and Easy Celebrate-ion Card - TST Challenge 54 /My Challenge #9

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Hey y'all. Happy Thursday. Just one more day till the weekend begins. :) I hope you're all having an Amazing week. I'm still sick but at least I feel like I'm slowly getting over this pneumonia. At least I have had the energy to design and stamp.

I've already done my "challenge" for the week, but I saw this sketch challenge over at Try Stamping on Tuesday, and knew I wanted to do it too. It was another one of those sketches that I just looked at and knew exactly what I wanted to do. Love when that happens, especially since it happens so rarely, for me at any rate.

Here's my take on the sketch-

And here's the TST sketch-

What do you think? I sketched it at work and went home and was able to recreate my plan so quickly and easily. Apparently though I sketched it too quickly, because I realized later that I missed the extra border under the lower strip and that the lower strip was supposed to go all the way across. Hopefully the design team over at TST won't mind too much.

I started with a base of Peach Parfait, the same as yesterday. Hard to believe I haven't used that color much and then made two very different cards with it, for two different challenges, in one day. Next I layered a Whisper White panel that I ran through my Big Shot with my Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder. Two strips of DSP from Just Add Cake (love that pack!), add some bright color to the front. 

For my flower I punched out pieces of Peach Parfait and So Saffron with my Large Scalloped Circle Punch. I tried something new with these pieces and, using my paper snips, made cuts in between each of the scallops and then raised every other one to make it look like individual petals. I layered the two colors on top of each other, so that you could see both colors and secured them with a brad from the Sale-A-Bration Ribbon and Brad pack. The flower was adhered with two dimensionals, for a little more elevation.

The sentiment is from Sprinkled Expressions, another Sale-A-Bration set and I used my Word Window Punch and Modern Label Punch  and some more dimensionals to make it stand out.

Here's the inside-

The sentiment is from the same Sprinkled Expressions set. I colored it in with my Stampin Write Markers in Peach Parfait, Baja Breeze, So Saffron, and Wild Wasabi. A strip of DSP carries on the design theme from the front. It's hard to tell from my picture (sorry about that) but the DSP is up from the bottom a little so that there is still some Whisper White c/s showing.

Like I said, Quick and Easy but I think it's so fun too! 

I hope you liked today's card and I hope it inspires you to create something today, maybe for a challenge, maybe a new technique... Remember the goal of this blog is to Just Try.

I hope to see yo back here tomorrow for my End of the Week Technique. It's one I've been wanting to try for a while now.

Till next time-

Remember- Life isn't about Waiting for the storm to pass, but learning to Dance in the rain.

Be Safe,

Shan

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Love You Just The Way You Are!

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Hey y'all.
So here's the post I've been meaning to post all week. I am hopefully still sound asleep in bed, but as my mind has been all wrapped up the last few days I truly doubt that is happening. Hopefully, I at least got to sleep in at least a little though.

When I saw this sentiment in the Sale-A-Bration set Sprinkled Expressions I knew I had to have it! I love the sentiment "You make my whole face smile" but I would have purchased $50.00 in merchandise just for this one sentiment to stamp cards for my sweet daughter.
It says "Love you just the way you are" and I do. I hope she reads this post soon. She recently moved to Tennessee and I miss her like Crazy! Actually, I kinda hope she doesn't read this, because this will be going in the mail to her and it would be nice to have it be a surprise.

Wanna see it?

This is how it started

I used a base of Poppy Parade, love that color! So sad this is the last year it's an in color. ): *tear* I then took a layer of Everyday Enchantment DSP (a Sale-A-Bration bonus) and used one of my new heart framelets to cut out the heart in the center. Love how easy they are to use and of course now I have a beautiful heart that I can use in another project. Bonus! I inked up the heart image from the Sprinkled Expressions Stamp set with Poppy Parade and stamped it on a scrap piece of Very Vanilla c/s and adhered that to the back of the DSP. I then popped this up with dimensionals on the Poppy Parade base and the front was done. So quick and easy.

On to the inside-

I stamped the central image again in the lower inner corner after stamping off 3 times to get a much lighter image. I stamped the sentiment full color.

*Tip* Wanna know a secret? All 3 sentiments in this set have sentiments and curvy symbols either hearts, stars or flowers. I got this set in clear mount and cut the stamps separating the sentiments from the symbols so I could stamp them with the symbols as I did above or I could stamp just the sentiment as I did in my other card here. This keeps you from having to mask the stamp. You can also do this when you mount your wood stamps or when you transfer your wood mount to cling mount.

So, I thought that I was done, but I just felt like it needed a little something else, so I went to my old stand by and you know what I did right? Yep! I called on my old friend Tink. Here's what she did-

Unfortunately, I could not get an angle where my Stoopid BB would pick up the true shine that was coming off of this card. It just looks sugared here, but trust me, it was just the extra touch that was needed.

Well, I hope you like it, and I hope you think it was worth the wait. But more importantly, I hope my sweet, darling, baby, girl who "I Love Just The Way She Is" loves it!

If you liked today's card, I would love it if you left me a comment. It's great when I get to hear from you! Also, if you liked today's card, please feel free to +1 or Pin it. I've added the buttons to my side-bar for your convenience. Friends and Followers are also welcome. :)

I am still, despite everything, going to try and get a EWT done for this week and ready to post either late today or tomorrow and as soon as I know something health wise I will be sure to post it.

If I don't get to post over the weekend, I hope you all have a great weekend with lots of time to spend with friends and family and of course lots of time for stamping and designing.

Till next time-

Be Safe,
Shan

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A Sneak Peak an Ooops and A Smile

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Hey y'all! I hope you're having a good day wherever you are and that you are warm and dry and as stress-free as can be at this time of the year. It's a dreary morning here in the DMV but at least it's relatively warm. :-) We're expecting rain off and on today, but at least it's not the white stuff right?

Well I have a bright, cheery card to show you today. It makes me smile when I look at it, and hey, isn't that the point? I have to say this card didn't make me smile to start with though! Have you ever had one of those cards where you know what you want it and it just won't work? Never happens to me! HA!!!!!! Yeah, well you know I'm still pretty new here, so I thought I would step out of my comfort zone and try something new...What an OOOPS! (and not in the the good way) Ok, if I'm honest it was a fail Big Fail! I wish I had more stuff on my MDS and could have tried out there what I wanted to do. Oh well, you live and you learn, and then you save up to buy more MDS downloads and more SAB paper. SMH! The only things that stayed the same were the color palate and the stamp set. However, on the positive side, if that hadn't been such a fail, I might not have made this card which I really like. What do you think?

It's a little Sneak Peek from our upcoming Sale-A-Bration that starts Jan. 24th. I started with a base of Poppy Parade, which is one of my absolute favorite colors. It's so pretty! I layered it with a pretty floral patterned paper from the SAB DSP called Everyday Elegance. They are all slightly "Vintagey looking" around the edges so when I cut my DSP I heavily sponged the edges all around to kind of even them up. Of course this meant my Very Vanilla layer needed the same treatment so I sponged it by rubbing Crumb Cake ink in a circular pattern all over the  edges starting off the paper. I think it gives it a well-loved feeling. I adhered these top two layers together with Tombow.

My flowers are from our new Sale-A-Bration set Sprinkled Expressions. I colored the stamp in with my Pretty in Pink Stampin Write Marker and then using the Rock and Roll technique colored the edges with Poppy Parade and then stamped onto Very Vanilla cardstock. I love how just like real flowers this technique makes each one come out unique. A little love from Tink on the outer edges and the inner white flowers and they were ready to be placed on the card. A few dimensionals for each flower gives them just an added little punch.

Isn't that ribbon pretty? I don't use ribbon often. Not because I don't like it. I do! I just don't have much. I got this for free. Free is good right?!? It's so shimmery and delicate... just like me. O. M. Gheeeeeee! I'm almost on the floor laughing right now! I'm so not shimmery or delicate! If you knew me you would be so surprised that there is so much glitter on my cards. (That explains why I let Tink live with me rent free!)

Where was I? I laughed so hard I lost my train of thought! Oh yeah,  pretty, free, ribbon. This ribbon is Lucky Limeaide and it comes in a pack with some shimmery, sheer Calypso Coral and the cutest little brad pack. You can't buy it, but SU will give it to you for free starting in Jan. How sweet is that? Anyways, I just wrapped the ends around the back of my top two layers and stuck it down with SNAIL and then stuck my sweet little bow on with a Mini- Glue Dot. Then I adhered this whole layer with Tombow and my card-front was done.

Here's a look at the inside-

The sentiment is from The Sprinkled Expressions set and I just love it! I stamped it in Poppy Parade on Very Vanilla that I antiqued like I did on the front of the card. For the flower at the bottom, I just inked the stamp up in Poppy Parade and stamped off once before stamping  on my cardstock. Tink finished it off for me and my card that started off in a totally different direction ended up at the same desired endpoint, making me smile. I hope it makes you smile too. (Sorry about the lines in the picture. For some reason I sometimes get those when I take pictures with my BB and use my Ott light. I get truer color but that sometimes happens. If anyone has any ideas how to avoid that I would welcome the tips.)

Card Recipe-
Cardstock- Poppy Parade, Very vanilla, SAB Everyday Elegance
Stamp- Sprinkled Expressions
Ink- Poppy Parade, Crumb Cake Classic Ink Pads- Pretty in Pink Stampin Write Marker
Accessories- SAB Lucky Limeaide Ribbon, Dazzling Diamonds, Tombow, Two- Way Glue Pen, Mini- Glue Dots, Stampin Dimensionals

If you need supplies to make your Ooops cards with, or even just Fabulous first attempts, you can shop HERE 24/7.

That's all I have for today. I hope you're inspired to try something new and to remember- If at first you don't succeed (you can either flip to the other side of the paper, use it for another project later, or at the very least scraps) don't give up. You might just come up with something you like even better than your original idea.

If you liked today's card, I would love it if you left me a comment. It's great when I get to hear from you! Also, if you liked today's card, please feel free to +1 or Pin it. I've added the buttons to my side-bar for your convenience. Friends and Followers are also welcome. :)

I hope you'll come back tomorrow. I have a very special card for this week's End of the Week Technique.
Till next time-

Be Safe,
Shan Pin It