Artistic Etchings

This is a Stampin' Up! stamp set called Artistic Etchings. I belong to a small stamping group and our challenge was to bust out a stamp you bought and never used. This is what I picked. I loved this set in the catalog, then bought it and couldn't decide what to even do with it so it just sat. I inked it up for the first time in a year and this is what I came up with.

I love this chef!

This is my favorite stamp set from Stampin' Up! It's a retired set, but I just can't bring myself to get rid of it. I love to paper piece him. So fun.

Card Collection

I decided to make a little card collection out of some DP that I have laying around here. I'm trying hard not to buy paper, but to use what I have instead. My craft room is over run with paper. So, here is a set I came up with. It's hard to see, but the base of the card is basic gray from Stampin' Up! I'm in love with this color combo.

A little bit of Love for the love of my life!

I absolutely adore my husband. He is always showing me ways he appreciates me by giving me flowers at least once a month, if not more (from the time of our first date 20 years ago), he always tells me he loves me, he leaves me notes in the morning if I am sleeping in. He does a lot. I'm not a romantic person at all. When I fix his lunch for him, I like to sometimes throw in a little love note in his lunch. After all, he appreciates it and the kids don't. I stopped doing it for them. LOL! It's just a little 3x3 card I made for his lunchbox. I love it. Not only did he show his construction worker co-workers, he took a picture of it and put it on his facebook. :D I'm getting better at showing my love, I did a little lipstick heart with an I love you message on the mirror for him the other morning. Baby steps...and it's only taken 20 years. Haahaa!!

Quick and Easy

I am trying to come up with quick and easy cards to keep on hand for certain occasions. I was searching Pinterest and came across THIS card. Of course, mine doesn't look 1/2 as good, but I'm ok with it for now.

I'm a bit behind in posting.

Let me see if I can remember the challenges that I have forgotten to post.

February 20th challenge was to make something with wheels on it. Here is my card. Sorry for the picture quality, it was taken from my cell phone. I just free hand drew the car and cut it on the fold of an 8.5 x 11 piece of paper then also cut out a shape for the window. I covered the window with transparency to give it a real 'window' look.

February 28th, our challenge was to make a card with a die cut on it. I used an old Sizzix Owl that I found laying in a drawer and added some googly eyes.

On March 11th, our challenge was to make a card using out "newest" stamp we purchased. Now, it has been SOOO LONG since I bought a stamp myself that I'd have no idea which one to use. I did receive the stamp I used as a gift for this card. It is the newest stamp in my collection. It's called Strength & Hope from Stampin' Up! of course. :D

Stamp a Tag

Another challenge I am late posting was to stamp a tag. Again, I didn't really "stamp" anything on here, but my baby is now obsessed with Mickey Mouse. For the past year, he has been die hard Star Wars and Pirates of the Caribbean. He has been planning a Darth Vader bday party since his 3rd birthday. So, over the past year I have been collecting a lot of Star Wars things for his upcoming party. About a month ago, he decided it has to be Mickey Mouse. Now I'm starting over at square 1. Since Mickey Mouse is all I can think of right now, I decided to make Dominic a little Mickey Mouse book marker he can play with. It is so hard to believe the last "crafty" baby will be turning 4 next week.

Awash with Flowers

I am a little behind on my posting of cards. Our next challenge (on the stamp forum I belong to) is to make a "Spring" card. While, I didn't really use "springy colors", I did use flowers. I love this card. I saw the idea on Pineterest. That seems to be where I get all my ideas from lately. I used Awash with Flowers by Stampin' Up! for this card.

You Grow Girl!

I am so excited to say that my sister-in-law and her husband are expecting their first baby!!! I'm going to be an Auntie again. What can be better than that? Here is a card I sent them to congratulate them on the news. I think I'm even more excited that I get to tell people now. When I find out about news like this, I always want to shout if from the rooftops. So, being able to say something to the public is exciting. Congrats to both of them!

For this card, I used the paper piecing technique for the girl's clothes. I just stamped the image onto the patterned paper and cut it out and then placed it over the original stamped imagine on plain white paper. Of course, if you are new to stamping/card making, you can find out all about paper piecing here.

Challenge #5 - Man card

Our 5th challenge card this year was to make a "manly" card. If you know me, you know I do not like to make "manly" cards. That is almost as hard as not using any black ink for me. There isn't one thing I like about this card, but here it is. I know, I should have put much, much more effort into it, but I just can't get into making manly cards. Maybe I will sit down soon and really try to make a decent man card. For now, this is what you get. And, yes, I am aware that somewhere along the way, I lost a challenge card. Oh well.

It's been a while

It has certainly been far too long since I have updated my blog or even touched a stamp pad. Luckily, I belong to a stamp group and the friends over there have started issuing challenges again. It's just what I need. Here are the cards I have made for the 3 challenges in January so far.

First challenge: Stamp an animal.
I made using Best Of Cluk, a retired Stampin' Up! stamp set and Whisper White and Creamy Caramel paper. After folding my card stock, I punched out the oval on the front. The chicken is actually stamped on the inside of the card, but I couldn't get the picture to turn out for some reason. I stamped another image of the chicken and cut his body out and stuck it over the top with a dimensional. It's pretty cute.

Second Challenge: No Black Ink
This card I made super simple. I used Basic Gray and Certianly Celery card stock and white embossing powder instead of black ink. The stamp set I used is Upsy Daisy. This card is pretty self explanatory.

Third Challenge: Make a Happy Birthday Card:
Simple enough! I used Whisper White and some expired DP from SU again on this card. The stamp set I used for the Happy Birthday is Warmest Regards. I have no idea if that set is expired or not. I also used my SU oval punch and stampin' dimensionals to pop the Happy birthday up a bit. I made this card out of all scraps of paper, something I need to do more of.