colourQ challenge #329

I wasn't sure if I would like this week's colourQ challenge colors since I never do black and white cards, but once I successfully embossed black cardstock with a white pattern (SU! Bella Toile), I was pretty excited!! I briefly hesitated to cut my beautiful toile, but really wanted to add a little angular interest to my card. The cardstock is my favorite Melon Mambo and the birthday sentiment came from PTI. This set also has a die, which I have, but I have never been able to successfully cut out the word "birthday," so I used my Silhouette. Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend! It's supposed to be much warmer here in East Tennessee, so we're pretty excited!

PTI 9th Anniversary: #saturdaysnailmail

Today's PTI 9th Anniversary challenge is to make a thank you card for the Papertrey Ink warehouse staff - all those faithful folks who put together all those beautiful packages day after day. I just love getting happy mail from PTI!! For my card, I used Tropical Teal cardstock and used the corner floral from Mini Blooms in Hero Arts unicorn ink and embossed with SU! white embossing powder. The sentiment is from Wet Paint and stamped and embossed the same as the flowers. It's a simple card but I think it's very striking. I don't think I've ever used Tropical Teal cardstock before but you know how much I love turquoisey colors so I had to have it! Thanks so much for stopping by and Happy Valentine's Day! Whether you're married or single or anything in between, go out and do something YOU love today!

PTI 9th Anniversary: Color Pop Fortune Teller Challenge

Today's PTI 9th Anniversary Challenge involves a cute little blast from the past, although if you have young kids like I do, it may not be that far in your past - a fortune teller! Or some people call them "cootie catchers," although I hate that. Anyway, I printed and cut out the fortune teller from Nichole Heady's website and even remembered how to fold it. My random color combo is Hawaiian Shores, New Leaf, and Raspberry Fizz. I had Hawaiian Shores but none of the other colors so I subbed SU!'s Wild Wasabi and Tim Holtz's Picked Raspberry. Since this is a sympathy card, it's fairly soft and simple with only a few little pearls for flower centers. Please check out my other blog post from today  and leave a comment if you have a chance. Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!!

Baby Button Bits

It's been a long time since I've made a baby card but a sweet couple at our church recently had their first baby and I had to personalize a few things for their little boy. I have never done pacifiers nor a wipes box but I like how they turned out. Those little pacis are hard to monogram but, oh, so cute! For the card, I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut three little ducks out of a piece of cardstock and then backed it with three little pieces of PTI polka dot paper. I broke out PTI's Baby Button Bits, which I know I haven't used in forever, and stamped a little sentiment on the front in SU! Coastal Cabana ink. The card needed something on the inside, so I stamped another sentiment from the same stamp set and added a cute little button which I LOVE!! Thanks for stopping by and have a great night!

PTI 9th Anniversary: Create Along with Us Challenge

Happy Thursday, friends! I have given up on the PTI 9 squares challenge, but I have embraced the Create Along with Us challenge! I love Danielle Flanders card using the upcoming release stamp set, Tulip Time, so that's the inspiration for my card. I used strips of SU! Real Red and Watermelon Wonder & PTI's Pure Poppy cardstock for the background and PTI's Brushed Blooms for the focal point and sentiment. The inks I used are SU! Wild Wasabi, Certainly Celery, Daffodil Delight, and Watermelon Wonder, & Tim Holtz's Worn Lipstick and Blueprint Sketch. Thanks for stopping by today! Go create something!

colourQ challenge #328

This week's colourQ challenge color palette includes one of my very favorite colors: Melon Mambo. It's the perfect shade of pink! I am doing Papertrey Ink's anniversary challenges this week, along with making a few little Valentine projects for my favorite family members, so I decided to make this week's project simple, although I really like the way it turned out. I used my Cameo to cut the white lacy heart and then an old SU! flower punch for the flowers. Those little flowers needed a lit oomph so I added a tiny pearl to the centers. Thanks for stopping by today and have a great day!

PTI 9th Anniversary: Grab & Craft Challenge

Today's PTI Anniversary Challenge is a Grab & Craft challenge - grab all the items you want to use for your project in 5 minutes. It's a good thing I already knew what I wanted to make, because it took me 5 minutes just to locate the stuff I already knew I wanted to use!! I found the inspiration for this sweet little card on Pinterest and I adore the color palette - it's so springy and soft. I guess I'm inspired by the warmer weather here in East Tennessee. I used the following products by PTI - Hawaiian Shores ink and cardstock, Lemon Tart cardstock, and Daydreamer stamp set. I also used SU! Daffodil Delight and Certainly Celery inks and twine by Doodlebug Designs. Thanks for stopping by today - I'll be back tomorrow with the latest from PTI!!

PTI 9th Anniversary: Introducing Dress-Up Dolls & Stamp-A-Faire 2016

Have mercy, I had no idea how to approach today's PTI 9th Anniversary challenge! I am not much of a clotheshorse so I was afraid my closet would be sadly lacking in inspiration, so I thought about using a Vera Bradley purse, but as much as I LOVE those patterns, they make my head spin when I try to duplicate them. So, after only getting 3 hours of sleep last night, I decided I might be able to glean some inspiration from this top, which is one of my faves. I embossed in black ink on watercolor paper an image from another retro SU! set called Doodle This. I used PTI Hawaiian Shores and Berry Sorbet along with SU! Not Quite Navy and Tim Holtz's Mermaid Lagoon to loosely watercolor in and around the images. I had no idea what I was going for, but this is what I have. I looked through my tremendous stash of cardstock for a piece of SU! Soft Stone but I didn't have any so I used Kraft for my card base and sentiments from Brushed Blooms on a little banner. Thanks for stopping by today and have a blessed weekend!!

Papertrey Ink 9th Anniversary: Team Intro & Project Favorites

This week, Papertrey Ink is celebrating its 9th anniversary, which means lots and lots of beautiful projects and prizes and all kinds of goodness! Every day, there will be a new challenge and my personal goal is to participate in every one of them! I decided to start of with a simpler card since PTI challenges are the ones I usually have the most trouble with. I had three of the five colors in the Color Recipe I chose - I subbed SU! Certainly Celery for Limeade Ice (that's a tough color to match!) and Tim Holtz's Spiced Marmalade for Summer Sunrise. I used one of my favorite PTI sets, Brushed Blooms, and PTI's new Phrases & Praises. The card base is Hawaiian Shores, which is one of my favorite shades of turquoise. Thanks for stopping by so late (it's after midnight here in East Tennessee) and have a great weekend!

colourQ challenge #327

This week's colourQ challenge colors didn't really appeal to me at first but once I started making my card, they grew on me. After seeing Papertrey Ink's Pedal Pusher stamp set revisited last week, I am completely obsessed with bicycles! I found this cute little die on sale at Hobby Lobby and I think I like it, although I may still have to buy Pedal Pusher in the near future! I created a little basket of flowers using two sizes of flowers from PTI's Cup of Cheer stamp set. I didn't have Cherry Cobbler (of course!!), so I subbed Riding Hood Red and Tim Holtz's Fired Brick. The sentiment is from PTI Splat and the background stamp is a retro SU! stamp called Bella Toile. You might still have that one, too! I have always loved it. A little Pool Party banner and a Kraft mini clothespin and VOILA! - this week's colourQ challenge submission is complete. Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

colourQ challenge #326 (part 2)

So, I literally cannot create a project any more without a colourQ color palette! I just received SU!'s new Sale-a-Bration stamp set called Botanicals for You and I must say, I am disappointed. I have never really liked SU!'s take on "clear" stamps, especially since the ones that are still mounted on rubber don't adhere well to acrylic blocks and are not trimmed very closely to the image. I threw caution to the wind and trimmed the excess rubber from all of the stamps except the large sentiment and they worked better. Then, the worst possible thing happened!! I. RAN. OUT. OF. ADHESIVE!! So, I used a glue stick (!!!) to put this card together, which is really awful even if it is a SU! glue stick. Hope you're having a great weekend! I'll be back when I get some more adhesive!

colourQ challenge #326

This week's colourQ challenge colors lend themselves beautifully to one of my favorite cards to make using SU!'s A Happy Thing stamp set. You may not know that my last name is Lemmons, so I absolutely had to have this set. I have made so many quick, beautiful cards with this little lemon. I had all the colors this week except for Wisteria Wonder so I subbed SU! Lovely Lilac. My LL ink pad is so old and faded that it's very similar to WW. My Old Olive marker is way too dark for this card, so I used the ink pad and a blender pen for a lighter shade of olive. I stamped the lemons in brown (I promise!!) even though it looks black. Since I'm running low on some of my colored cardstock, I've been using white card bases for most of my creations. White on white is very clean and lovely! Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great day!

colourQ challenge #325 (part 2)

 
I like my second attempt at this week's colourQ challenge much better than my first! If you make a lot of sympathy, encouragement, or thinking of you cards like I do, Papertrey Ink's Phrases & Praises is a must-have stamp set. I created a circle mask and stamped this week's colors using assorted dot stamps and SU!'s Grunge stamp set. I made this card because I recently saw an Instagram post by Jennifer McGuire about a card drive for Lasting Hearts, an organization run by a mom named Kimberly who miscarried twins but didn't feel comforted by her doctor because the doctor wasn't emotionally equipped to console grieving parents. Enter Angela Miller, who wrote the book, You are the Mother of All Mothers. Kimberly's goal is to provide grieving mothers with a copy of this book along with a handmade card to offer comfort. Please click on the link above if you would like to send cards for the Lasting Hearts card drive or make a donation to purchase books. Thanks for stopping by - I hope you're having a great day!

colourQ challenge #325

So, this past week has been a little insane! My dad went into the hospital on Monday to have a tumor removed from his bladder. He did very well post-surgery and was released in the afternoon. By 7 p.m., we were in the ER because of excessive bleeding. If you've ever been to the ER, you know that nothing happens especially quickly so hours and hours later, he was admitted and spent the next three days with a blood clot that the doctor eventually had to remove surgically. My sweet daddy is almost 80 years old so any kind of surgery is scary. My sweet mama stayed with him the entire time and thanks to my sweet hubby and a snow storm that closed schools all week, I was able to be at the hospital quite a bit, too. My role in these situations is comic relief and we had lots and lots of good laughs! He's home now and we are so thankful. I told you all that to explain that I haven't had much crafting time this past week. Now everyone is home and things are getting back to normal so I am back in my craft room. I had none of this week's colourQ challenge colors so I subbed SU! Rose Red, Regal Rose, & Daffodil Delight and PTI Classic Kraft inks. Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!!

colourQ challenge #323 (part deux)

I'm a little tardy to the party with my second card for this week's colourQ challenge, but Facebook has changed the way it stores synced photos and I couldn't find the this picture anywhere on my phone until just now. Hooray! I used PTI's newer Phrases & Praises stamp set and my favorite Altenew set, Painted Flowers. The tiny Pool Party flower is from PTI Mini Blooms. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

colourQ challenge #323

This week's colourQ challenge colors are beautiful reminders that spring will be here before we know it, although in E. Tennessee, we haven't had much of a winter . . . yet! As I blogged yesterday, I found the inspiration for the card on Lizzie Jones's blog. I used PTI's Friendship Jar, Life, and Mini Blooms stamp sets. I didn't have all the inks this week, so I subbed Tim Holtz's Picked Raspberry and SU! Pretty in Pink. I thought Kraft ink would be hard to use on my card, but it blends beautifully. Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

Thinking of You Mason Jar card

I had no idea it had been so long since I blogged! The holidays were busy but wonderful! We spent Christmas Eve with my parents at our church where I narrated the impromptu nativity we do every year and Morgan was a shepherd. It is loud and chaotic but so special nonetheless. We always conclude the service by singing "Silent Night" by candlelight - it's a very blessed evening. On Christmas Day, we went to my parents' house for lunch. We spent the rest of the weekend celebrating Bailey's 15th birthday and celebrating Christmas with Chris's family. Miraculously, and after having worked 4 p.m. - 1 a.m. on Christmas Eve, Chris was off the entire week after Christmas!! And now we have gotten so lazy that going back to school and work this week has been a beast. Well, enough reminiscing  . . . here's the card I made yesterday. I LOVE IT!! I found the inspiration for the card on Lizzie Jones's blog. I used PTI's Friendship Jar, Life, and Mini Blooms stamp sets, and PTI's Canyon Clay and Aqua Mist, SU!'s Kiwi Kiss, and Tim Holtz's Mowed Lawn inks. Thanks for stopping by, Mary Ann!! Hope you're having a great day!!