Use Those Thingies Thursday

Each month, an envelope comes to my house with a menagerie of supplies with which to create. One month of the year, I will send out images, backgrounds, embellishments, and such for this challenge. For June, our challenge pieces included the items below...






The items included images from the Nice and Narrow set and the Sweet Somethings set, both from SU.










The challenge is to create one - or more - cards or projects from the included supplies, adding our own creativity and using some of our own stash. If you have any of the supplies above (or something similar), I'd love to see what you do with it.


Here's the first card I created.




The image is colored with Copics, layered on top of a piece of SU pink paper, and embellished with some self-adhesive pearls and organdy ribbon that I had in my stash.




Along with using the pearls on the baby buggy, I also used them at the bottom of the card.




Try the challenge! I want to see what you can create.


Free File Friday tomorrow! I will have a .jpg file or two for you to pick up and use with SCAL.

Have an awesome Thursday and a great, big, beautiful tomorrow!


~*Shell*~

CDS Summer Stamp Off

As many of you know, Clear Dollar Stamps is one of my favorite stamp companies and one that I often refer to on here. The company is having a Design Team Call - the CDS Summer Stamp Off, and I've chosen to apply. Normally, applicants show off several of their recent projects - any kind. For one card this time, they want us to use a sketch and all bright colors. We're also limited to one type of embellishment. You can find the details here.

My first version of this challenge came out .... less than I had hoped. So, back to the drawing board I went ... or rather, back to the Haven I went. :) I'm much happier with this card. :)





This card started with the card base. I took a lattice heart into SCAL, welded them to the edge of a rectangle, did the same for the back of the card, and cut. I love the edge this cut gives the card. It can be used for many different card types. (Imagine it in white for a wedding or baby card ...).












It took quite a while to cut the edge because of all of the 'holes.' It was worth it, though!!

The corners of the orange layer were punched with an EK Success corner punch. It's an unusual one, but it's pretty cool.


















The card base is SU, as is the orange and pink layers. I'm not sure who makes the designer/patterned paper I used, but it gave the card a little bit of a psychedelic feel. :) You can get a bit of a glimpse of it behind the frog image here. The frog, mushroom, flowers, and 'hi' are all from Pond Pals by CDS. They are colored with Copics, and the image layer, as well as the sentiment, are up on pop dots.












I chose to make my strip across the bottom using my one type of embellishment. The embellishments are hand-crocheted flowers with little crystal centers. The little flowers from Pond Pals are also stamped on the orange layer using VersaMark ink.










This was a fun card to make, and I really like how it turned out. I may give it to someone special .... who could probably use a pick-me- up. :)


Have an awesome Wednesday and a great, big, beautiful tomorrow. Use Those Thingies Thursday is up next! :)


~*Shell*~

Mojo Monday

Did you have inspiration to create this weekend or last week? What was it? What take on it did you have? Will you share with me? I'd love to see it!!

My daughter is 4, and she has an adorable room Recently, she got a 'big girl bed' to go in there. The new comforter and bedding she picked out doesn't really match the room, but she - like any good 4 year old - doesn't care. :) I wanted to add a few things to tie it together.

First, I took pictures of the bedding.




I converted these to black and white pictures and imported them into SCAL. A little sizing, copy, pasting, and it was time to cut.






The images are cut from vinyl (purchased from Signwarehouse.com - Oracle 631 vinyl) on the Cricut. They cut like butter and stick wonderfully. They leave no residue when removed from the surface and are wonderful decorations for almost any room - you can even use vinyl cuts on your vehicle!

Let me know what you think and what inspired you to create this weekend!


Have a great Monday and a great, big, beautiful tomorrow.

It's the Weekend!

Summer nights .... fireworks, watermelon, and stars .... Oh, and little bugs. :) :) What great things to think about during the summer.

I went on a search for a fireworks picture. I wanted to import it into SCAL and cut it for a card.

The negative image of the fireworks is actually what was used in this project. It was cut from night of navy paper. Glossy paper was used for the background. Alcohol inks were used to make the background on that glossy paper. Silver, stream, and eggplant colors were used.




The colors aren't very discernible on the background, but the effect is nice for this card. It shines wonderfully ... just like the fireworks in the sky.



The little bug stamp used on front was found at Hobby Lobby on clearance last week. He was just adorable and had to come home with me (along with several other stamps, of course...). He is colored with Copics and accented with a Gelly Rollz glitter pen. The image is mounted on 3D glue dots. The patterned paper was from a paper stack and the ribbon from SU,






Tomorrow will be our first installment of Mojo Monday! Hope you had something that inspired you this weekend. I can't wait to share what inspired me and what I did with it.


Have a great Sunday and a great, big, beautiful tomorrow.


~*Shell*~

Clearly Challenged (Clearly Inspired Challenge #14)

Clearly iStamp has a challenge each month on the first Friday. Participants have until the first Friday of the next month to complete the challenge and post a link to a project related to the theme. They love for you to use Clear Dollar Stamps if you have them, but they are not required. The winner is randomly picked, and great prizes are offered!

The theme this month is Birthday Bash. According to the site .... The challenge will close on July 1 and the winner will be announced, along with the next challenge, on July 2nd.


After going through the CDS stamps in my stash, I decided to work with a set that I've not used yet. Critter Log is super cute! I love this little set. The bunny was precious, so that's where the project started. Christian Birthdays was also used on this card.


Isn't he adorable?! He is, of course, colored with Copics and mounted on SU paper - night of navy, certainly celery, and basic gray.
















The night of navy paper was stamped with VersaMark using the one of the stamps from the Leaf Impressions set. The base is creamy caramel and has been embossed with the Cuttlebug. The brads are from my stash.





















The sentiment is mounted on night of navy, as well, and the ribbon on the card was from the SAB ribbon bundle, I believe.










Tomorrow, I will show another project that I worked on this weekend.

Have a wonderful Saturday and a great, big, beautiful tomorrow! :)


~*Shell*~