Living in Paradise

365 Cards - Day 338 - Brad Bonanza

2012-01-31T20:36:00.000-10:00

Welcome to another wonderful Wednesday with 365 Cards! Today's challenge is titled "Brad Bonanza"...can you guess what that means?!? Specifically Pam wants to see you use 10 (or more) brads on your project. For my sample I made a "non-traditional" valentine's day card with this super cute Changito stamp and sentiment. He's colored with Copics and yes, those are two brads on the tires! The other brads are pretty obvious across the bottom of the card (that's another 9 for a total of 11 brads). It's kinda hard to see but I (*) embossed a stripped pattern on the brown panel. Here's the other challenges I was inspired by for this one:
1. Alphabet Challenge Blog - Z for Zoo Animals
2. Anything Goes Challenge Blog - to the one that I love
3. Crafty Sentiments - punches and/or dies: the border is a punch and the image and sentiment were cut with dies
4. Digi Doodle Shop 's Best - anything goes
5. Eat Sleep Stamp - sketch
6. Lollipop Crafts - anything goes
7. Mami Doodles: Digital Stamps - for a loved one
8. Pixie Dust Studio Pixie Challenge - let's go to the zoo
9. Sentimental Sundays - dry embossing (see * above)
10. Stamp-n-doodle - romance, love, and/or valentines
11. Stamp, Scrap & Doodle Saturday - anything goes
12. Stampin' for the Weekend - embossing (see * above)
13. Sweet Stampin Challenge Blog - animals

Thanks for stopping by and can't wait to see your all your brads!!
Aloha,

365 Cards and a so long for now...

2012-01-24T21:38:00.001-10:00

Aloha and welcome to another wonderful Wednesday with 365 Cards and D2D!! Today's challenge at 365 Cards is to make a card with a nautical theme and I thought this image (Quiet Sunset) from Faith at D2D was perfect. I colored it up on watercolor paper with Prismacolor pencils and OMS. The DSP is SU! Bella Bleu and the hardware is also SU! The knot is supposed to be a heart...not sure I quite got it there but you can find the tutorial for it here. Here's some other challenges I was inspired by for this one:
1. Challenge up your life - thank you
2. Kaboodle Doodles Challenge - thank you
3. Sketches by Carly - sketch
4. The Crafty Pad - something for the boys
5. Totally Stampalicious - Masculine
6. CREATIVE INSPIRATIONS - anything goes

Thanks for stopping by again and I also wanted to let you know that this will be my last sample as a member of the D2D team. I love Faith's images and being on the DT has been great but as we all find sometime we need to take a break and recoup...that's where I find myself. I still plan to play along and hopefully will be back on the team some day so it's "so long for now..."

Aloha,

January release at D2D!

2012-01-20T21:19:00.000-10:00

Aloha and welcome to the January new release with Designed2Delight (go back there if you get lost or want to start at the beginning)! I used Birdie's Valentine for my sample image and paper pieced it and layered the card up with digital papers from the new release too. Next up in the hop is Katie!

Here's some other challenges I was inspired by for this one:
1. 2 Sisters Challenge Blog - embossing
2. Card Makin’ Mamas - something old: I've had the embossing folder, rhinestone and heart brad for over a 1 year
3. Crafty Creations Challenges - valentine
4. Creative Card Crew - seeing red
5. Do you Stack up - patterns
6. Drunken Stampers - love
7. i{heart}2stamp - sketch
8. Karens Doodles Challenge Blog - paper piecing
9. Paper Issues - all we need is love
10. Really Reasonable Ribbon - valentine's day + ribbon
11. Sentimental Sundays - ribbon + sentiment
12. Simply Create Too - Love is in the air
13. The Crazy Challenge - ribbon, embossing, die cut shape
14. Totally Stampalicious - valentine theme
15. Wags ‘n Whiskers - Valentines/Love

Thanks for stopping by!
Aloha,

365 Cards - Day 324 - Bold Banner

2012-01-17T21:01:00.000-10:00

Aloha and welcome to another wonderful Wednesday at 365 Cards! Today's challenge is titled "Bold Banner" and Pam wants to see a banner be the focus of your card and include the sentiment on it. I broke out my super fun pennant punch from SU!, my bright and colorful Big Top Birthday DSP and some sparkly rhinestones to make this card! Not sure I've ever done a card in this color combo (Tempting Turquoise and Daffodil Delight) but I gotta admit that I like it! I'm thinking this would make a wonderful birthday card. Here's some other challenges I was inspired by for this one:
1. 2 Sisters Challenge Blog - metal: got some of those much neglect metal eyelets on this one
2. Alphabet Challenge Blog - Y for You Can Choose
3. Crafty Sentiments - anything goes
4. Speedy Fox and Friends Challenge - use a border punch
5. My Time To Craft Challenge - favourite embellishment: right now mine is rhinestones!
6. One Stitch At A Time Challenge - anything goes
7. Papertake Weekly Challenge - Buttons, Bows, Bling, &/or Blooms
8. Saturday Challenge - anything goes with blue
9. SEW MANY CHALLENGES - anything goes
10. Stamp-n-doodle - birthdays
11. Sweet Stampin Challenge Blog - glitter, bling, shine, sparkle
12. Winter Wonderland - birthday wishes

Aloha,

Playing along...

2012-01-16T10:30:00.000-10:00

Aloha! With the holiday weekend I had some time to create a "just for fun" card! Gotta admit I haven't outgrown loving to color images by hand and this "Birthday Fairy Lee" is just so much fun! She's colored with Prismacolor pencils and OMS. Things are glittered up with a Spica clear pen. The patterned paper is SU! Big Top Birthday and I love the bright colors! It ended up looking a bit Fourth of July with the red, white and blue and the stars but I still think it's fun. Here's some challenges I was inspired by for this one:

1. allsorts challenge blog - Celebration of Nations: The red, white and blue, and stars remind me of the US flag
2. C.R.A.F.T. Challenge - celebration
3. Catch The Bug Challenge Blog - birthday
4. Crafty Cardmakers - no floral embellishments
5. Daisy Doodles Creative Challenges - anything goes + digi
6. Digi Doodle Shop 's Best - embossing
7. Eat Sleep Stamp - sketch
8. Flutter By Wednesday's - bright colors (+ fairy)
9. Incy Wincy Designs - bold & brights
10. Mo’s Challenge - clean and simple (+ Mo image)
11. Paper Makeup Stamps - a fairy nice day
12. Scrap-Creations - glitter
13. Stamptacular Sunday Challenge - texture please
14. The ABC Challenge - happy birthday
15. Totally Gorjuss - star

Here's hoping you have a wonderful week and see you back on Wednesday for my 365 Cards sample!
Aloha,

365 Cards - Day 317- Candy Land

2012-01-11T21:14:00.000-10:00

Hello and welcome to another wonderful Wednesday with 365 Cards. Today's challenge is to be inspired by the board game Candy Land! I pulled out an old SU! Halloween set to stamp the panel and matched it with "Just Add Cake" DSP. The sentiment is from the SU! Afterthoughts set. Here's some other challenges I was inspired by for this one:
1. Anything Goes Challenge Blog - anything goes
2. Eat Sleep Stamp - sketch
3. For Fun Challenges - anything goes
4. Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge - animal print or Happy Birthday
5. Lexi's Creations - anything goes
6. Sweet Stampin Challenge Blog - spots and dots

Can't wait to see your Candy Land inspired creations!
Aloha,

D2D Winter Flowers challenge

2012-01-08T13:23:00.000-10:00

Happy Sunday! Here's my sample for this week's D2D challenge that I'm hosting which is "Winter (or any) Flowers"! The image is called "Hand Picked" and I thought it was a poinsettia but now I think it probably is some other kind of flower! Oh well, it was fun to color with those trusty Copics! Almost everything else on this card is from Stampin' Up...the DSP is last year's Candy Cane Christmas, the ribbon is from last year's Christmas bundle and the sentiment is from the Sincere Salutations set (thanks to my FABulous SU! demonstrator, Mom, for all the materials!). Here's some other challenges I was inspired by for this one:
1. C.R.A.F.T. Challenge - Thank you
2. Catch The Bug Challenge Blog - anything goes
3. CES challenges - anything goes
4. INKY IMPRESSIONS CHALLENGES - anything goes
5. Karens Doodles Challenge Blog - spots and stripes
6. Simply Create Too - Layers, Layers and more Layers
7. Stamps R Us - anything goes (or what you got for Christmas)
8. the sweetest thing... - sketch
9. CREATIVE INSPIRATIONS - with thanks

Also I thought I post the Christmas card that my mom and I made this year to send to family and friends. Actually in our rush to get them done, we sent them all (40!!) out without taking a picture but I've gotten two back for address issues so I busted one out and took a picture! The palm tree stamp/die, cloud dies, and wave die were all from Taylored Expressions. The Santa and sun is from a D2D stamp (Tropical Christmas). The stocking is a Martha Stewart punch and the sand is embossed with a Cuttlebug folder. Oh yeah, the window was cut out and framed with nestabilities. Whew, they were a lot more work then I intended but I love how it turned out...

Thanks Mom for all your help!!
Aloha,

Happy New Year DT posts

2012-01-03T20:50:00.000-10:00

Hau'oli Makahiki Hou (Happy New Year in Hawaiian) and welcome to the first wonderful Wednesday of 2012...wow...where does time go?!? Well, a lot of mine is spent making fun cards! First up is to today's challenge at 365 Cards and this week we're all doing "pretty pairs"! Mine is Red and Gingham, and although I combined mine, you don't have to! I just had this super cute paper I wanted to use that had both! So the stamps are from SU!'s Valentine Defined, the DSP is Bella Rose (retired) and a "borrowed" crochet flower and brad from a card my mom made me (thanks mom!!)! Here's some other challenges I was inspired by for this one:
1. Bearly Mine Challenges - anything goes
2. Crafty Sentiments - Love and romance
3. If The Shoe fits... Scrap It! - use up my stash: I've had this Bella Rose DSP for awhile
4. Mojo Monday - sketch
5. My Time To Craft Challenge - XOXO hugs and kisses
6. Robyn’s Fetish Challenge - anything goes
7. Incy Wincy Designs - anything goes
8. Papertake Weekly Challenge - anything goes
9. pile it on - anything goes
10. Rainbow Lady's Challenge Blog - your choice

Next up is a recycled chow mien noodle can that I made into a "bank" for the Box Tops for Education that I'm collecting. Of course I had to use this super cute D2D image!

I used School Maisie Belle and colored her up with Copics! The patterned paper (that you can see much of) is Paper Reflections school theme and I embellished it up with buttons, grosgrain ribbon and some black pom-pom trim. Here's some other challenges I was inspired for this one:
1. Catch The Bug Challenge Blog - inspiration photo: I was inspired by the colors
2. Do you Stack up - rainbow of colors
3. One Stitch At A Time Challenge - use a digi
4. Sketches by Carly - sketch: it's kinda hard to see but I was inspired by this sketch!
5. Stamp-n-doodle - anything goes
6. The Pink Elephant - anything goes
Thanks for stopping by and can't wait to see what you come up with!
Aloha,

365 Cards - Day 303 and catch up!

2011-12-27T21:52:00.000-10:00

Mele (belated) Kalikimaka!! Sorry I've been MIA for the past few weeks. The parents came in for their annual Christmas trip early this year (the evening of the 13th) and just left this afternoon after two busy weeks!! Gotta admit I'm a bit embarrassed that we didn't get out and do much in this great tropical paradise (just a short beach trip on Christmas day) but we did get lots of projects done around my house! I'll post pictures later for the proof but just in summary I got a new laminate hallway floor, my bedroom floor no longer squeaks, my air conditioner doesn't rattle as much, my houseplants have new soil, my coffee table has a couple of fresh coats of paint/glaze, I have a new grill, and I have a gorgeous new kitchen island!! Whew! Anyway, sorry I didn't have time to post my last combined DT project so I'll do that at the end of this post.

This week at 365 Cards is "flashback" week and I picked the May 19th challenge which was "cute cuts." For this one you need to create your own sentiment letter stickers. I stamped a random holiday sentiment stamp on an address label and cut it up. This card is also for this week's D2D challenge which is to create a gift card holder. I followed the Pop-Up Gift Card Holder tutorial on SCS for this one.

Here's some other challenges I was inspired by for this one:
1. 2 Sisters Challenge Blog - snowflakes
2. Aud Sentiments Challenge Blog - anything goes
3. Bearly Mine Challenges - anything goes
4. City Crafter Challenge Blog - Make the cut: I'm counting my cut up sentiment for this one
5. Delicious Doodles challenges - anything goes
6. Digi Doodle Shop 's Best - anything goes
7. Do you Stack up - stripes
8. Everybody-Art-Challenge - anything goes
9. Speedy the Cat’s Friends Challenge - Anything goes
10. One Stop Craft Challenge - Winter Wishes
11. Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge - holiday gifts
12. Pollycraft Monday Challenge - punch it
13. Saturday Challenge - anything goes
14. Stampin' for the Weekend - anything goes

Here's last week's 365 Cards and D2D card.

The challenge at 365 Cards was to use two different kinds of stitching (I have faux stitching around the image and actual handstiching on the tree) and the D2D challenge was to use a Christmas tree.

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and an even better New Year!!
Hau'oli Makahiki Hou!

365 Cards - Day 289 - Pretty Petals

2011-12-13T21:00:00.001-10:00

Aloha and welcome to another wonderful Wednesday with 365 Cards! Today's challenge is called "Pretty Petals" and Pam wants to see you "create a large flower on your card using petals you've created yourself (any way you want)." To make mine I used the SU! Bird punch...the inner leaves are from the wing and the larger leaves are the bird's body (slightly trimmed). The leaves are just the bird's body. The flower center is a snowflake punch and it's all held together with a glitter brad. Oh and I used my embossing stylus to draw veins in the leaves. FUN!!

Here's some other challenges I was inspired by for this one:
1. Aud Sentiments Challenge Blog - Winter Holiday Sentiments
2. CES challenges - a traditional Christmas
3. Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge - Anything goes
4. Cute Card Thursday - anything goes
5. Digi Doodle Shop 's Best - nature
6. Incy Wincy Designs - Christmas + brads
7. Lollipop Crafts - Happy Holidays
8. One Stop Craft Challenge - Christmas cards using traditional colors
9. Paper Issues - Holiday Madness
10. Phindy’s Friday challenge - clean and simple

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Holidays!
Aloha,

D2D "Tag you're it!" challenge

2011-12-09T21:34:00.000-10:00

Here's my samples for today's D2D Saturday challenge at Designed2Delight. I couldn't make just one so I made 5!! I used the Peace Trees and Tag set, Snowman Tag and Frame, Christmas Train and Tag set, Christmas Cocoa and Tag set, and Gift Wrap Mouse (I added the To/From sentiment). All are colored with Copics and layered on SU! Real Red and Green Galore cardstock with a big eyelet at the top. Here's some other challenges I was inspired by for these:
1. 2 Sisters Challenge Blog - Christmas
2. Card Makin’ Mamas - Christmas
3. Charisma Cardz Challenges - No cards
4.{Cupcake Inspirations} - inspiration photo
5. Freshly Brewed Challenge - Christmas
6. My Partner in Crafting Crime - tag for a Christmas pressie
7. PaperCrafting Journey - Christmas creations
8. Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge - Merry Christmas
9. Stampin' for the Weekend - Christmas
10. The Crazy Challenge - Anything goes

Thanks for stopping by!
Aloha,

365 Cards - Day 282 - Challenge Combo

2011-12-06T19:42:00.000-10:00

Aloha and welcome to another wonderful Wednesday with 365 Cards! Today's challenge is to combine one challenge from the month of September, one from October and one from November. I chose September 25 - sketch, October 31 - All Smiles, and November 11 - 3 R's (rhinestone, rick rack and mine was Red). I used my last new stamp from Sister Stamps called Setsuna. I used the snowburst embossing folder from SU!and colored him up with Copics. Other challenges I was inspired by for this one include:
1. 2 Sisters Challenge Blog - punches/dies: the image panel is a die and the scallops on the sentiment is a punch
2. Card Makin’ Mamas - sentiments
3. CCEE Stampers - snowflakes and bling
4. Cooking It Up With Katie - anything goes
5. Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge - Colours of Christmas + optional sparkle
6. Crafty Sentiments - snowflakes
7. CREATIVE BELLI BLOG - anything related to Winter/Christmas
8. Creative Card Crew - Tis the season
9. Cupcake Craft Challenges - DIY backing paper
10. Do you Stack up - Ribbon: I layered 3 ribbons on this one - a black grosgrain, a red sparkle, and a white felt rick rack
11. Fairy Tale Challenge blog - Christmas
12. Lexi's Creations - one for the lads
13. One Crazy Stamper - Christmas/Holiday
14. One Stitch At A Time Challenge - Be Square
15. PaperCrafting Journey - Anything goes
16. pile it on - bling it up
17. Pollycraft Monday Challenge - Christmas fun
18. Raise the Bar - It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
19. Simply Create Too - Christmas
20. Stamp, Scrap & Doodle Saturday - Holiday
21. Stamps R Us - Emboss it
22. The ABC Challenge - E for Embossing
23. The Pink Elephant - Snowflakes and Sparkle
24. Tuesday Throwdown - celebrate the season
25. Whoopsi Daisy Challenge - snowflakes

Thanks for stopping back and can't wait to see what challenges you combine!
Aloha,

D2D Let it Snow!!

2011-12-03T10:15:00.000-10:00

Aloha and welcome to Saturday's Challenge with Designed2Delight! Today's challenge is "Let it Snow" and we want to see your images with glitter and flocking. I used Faith's "singing snowman" image and dressed him up with glitter wings and flower soft on his body. Here's the other challenges I was inspired by for this one:
1. Bee Crafty - It's Christmas + digi
2. By The Cute And Girly - let it snow
3. Catch The Bug Challenge Blog - anything goes
4. Crafty Calendar Challenge - cold and frosty
5. Creatalicious Challenges - for Christmas and sparkles
6. Delightful challenges - let it snow
7. Digi Doodle Shop 's Best - lots of sparkle
8. Mami Doodles: Digital Stamps - make it shine (glitter)
9. One Stop Craft Challenge - let it snow
10. Sassy Studio Designs - holiday cards with sparkle
11. Simon Says Challenge - anything goes
12. Sketches by Carly - sketch
13. Sweet Stampin Challenge Blog - snowmen, snowflakes, snow people or just snow
14. TotallyPaperCrafts - let it snow
15. Wags ‘n Whiskers - snow angels

Thanks for stopping by and can't wait to see your snow projects!
Aloha,