Happy Easter, Here Comes Spring...

Before I get to today's post, I wanted to remind/let you know that I have a blog candy drawing open until Tuesday night (March 23rd). See the bottom of this post to find out what you need to do to enter.

Well, here's my almost weekly "Just for Fun" card! I was inspired by so many Spring/Easter challenges to make this one! I'm also in a punch art phase as this has only real stamping on the inside for the sentiment and "digital" stamping for the sentiment on the front...the rest is punches and dies! Here's the inside:

So here are the challenges for this one (and some of the deets):

1. "Just Us Girls" Challenge - Color inspiration (light blue, light green, yellow, and light brown): I used sky blue, wild wasabi, so saffron, and kraft, plus a little bit of pink pirouette and chocolate chip!

2. A Spoon Full of Sugar - Easter Inspired creations

3. ABC challenge - Quotation: I found the Easter quote on-line

4. allsorts challenge blog - "Spring is in the Air": nothing says Spring to me than pastel colors and those "eggs" and little pink flowers!

5. By The Cute And Girly - "Spring is in the Air": ditto above

6. CardPatterns - sketch

7. CCEE Stampers - Inspiration photo: check out the link for the photo...those truffles that look like robin eggs absolutely inspired me, along with the nest! Whatcha think, did I capture it?

8. Challenge up your Life - flower compliment

9. Crafty Creations Challenges - Spots & Dots: this is found in the DSP that I used (Delicate Dots from SU!)

10. Creative Card Crew - Going Dotty: ditto above

11. Die-cut Dreams Challenge Blog - "Pack a Punch" (You must use at least 2 different punches, no nesties or dies) Okay, I'm not sure what the branch/coral looking punch is called but it is one of MS's (found at Wally World), I used the Flowers Three punch, and cut up the 5 petal flower for the leaves (both from SU!). That's three, but I did use a small nestie oval to make the eggs, to cut out the sentiment on the front, and the circle bases for the "nests"

12. Fab ‘n’ Funky - "to use something NEW": The MS branchy punch was new as is that fab MS ribbon!

13. Frosted Designs - use a flower on your layout, card or project

14. Hand Full of Stamps - Grab all of those old stamps or supplies and create something: my something "old" is my sewing maching (have had it for years and just getting around to using it more regularly!)

15. Jacksonbelle embellishments - Show us your NEW STUFF!!!: see above

16. KL Stampin N Scrappin Blog - use both Flowers and Stitching (either real or faux): got both

17. Our Creative Corner - *Spring/Easter*: see above

18. pile it on - Pastels: see above

19. Rosie D’s - Think Spring: see above

20. Saturday Challenge - SPRING HAS SPRUNG: see above

21. Stamp, Scrap, and Doodle Saturdays - use tearing: I distressed/tore the edges of the DSP

22. Stamp Something - "Distressed Somethings"": in addition to the above, I also crumpled up the little layered flowers a bit to give them a distressed look (hard to see in the pic, I think)

23. Stampin' for the Weekend - Easter creations: see above

24. Sweet Stampin Challenge Blog - 'Spring is in the Air': see above

25. The Pink Elephant - Spring...Anything Spring: see above

26. Totally Gorjuss - ribbon: LOVE this moire ribbon from MS

27. Your Next Stamp - "distressing": see above

In a different, but related, vein...here's a picture of the punch art St. Patrick's day goodies I gave out this year. Inspiration from Stamperdog on SCS. I modified/simplified mine a bit.

Thanks for stopping by! Come back Monday when I'll have a new creation for Magical Mondays at TMITA/PCC!
Aloha,

Happy St. Patrick's Day - 365 Cards Day 17

  

Top o' the mornin' to you all and

here's to the best for the rest of the day too!

Today's card is for Day 17 at 365 Cards and although the challenge of "twinchie" didn't immediately inspire thoughts of St. Patty's Day in me, in looking through my stamps I found this adorable and totally appropriate little image! YEAH! So do you want some deets on this? Even if you don't, here they are (I'll bullet them to make them easier to read!)!  

 

• Okay, so the image is a Studio G clear stamp.
• My cardstock is SU! - Green Galore, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White (base for the image panel), and Yoyo Yellow (for the daffodils).
• I first stamped, embossed my image, colored the image with Prismacolor pencils and OMS and then covered that with a versamark pen and embossed again (that way my image resists the next steps. If you want more information on how to do this, check out Splitcoast Stampers. They have a great toot.).
• I brayered the sky and grass on a 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 cardstock and then sponged in the "clouds" with white craft ink and the negative of a scallop circle punch. The hills were sponged in with a darker ink and different templates cut from sticky notes. (Michelle Zindorf is an awesome resource on all things brayering, sponging, and emboss resisting. Check her out!) 
• To create my "twinchie" I used a 2 inch nestie to cut the image from the main panel and then layered it with a 2 1/4 square cut from the Pumpkin Pie CS. (got this idea from Michelle B...she does FAB work, check her out too!)
• To create the daffodils, I punched the 6 petal flower from the Boho Blossoms punch but that was too small for my taste. So I scanned it, enlarged it a bit, and then printed it out on the yellow card stock. Cut them out by hand and used the other small flower from this punch to make the center and layered a light green Dew Drop on that.
• Okay, think that about covers any of the hard stuff...if I left anything out, just ask!

Oh yeah, here's the inside:

Love this sentiment!

And as usual, here's some other challenges that I was also inspired by:

1. Clearly Delightful - sketch

2. Cupcake Craft Challenges - Going Green

3. Daring Cardmakers - A Host of Golden Daffodils

4. Incy Wincy Designs - Green  (at least 1/3rd of your creation as green)

5. Ooh LaLa Creations - Anything Goes 

6. Other Lovlies - Use a Brayer

7. Raise the Bar - Go Green!

8. The Corrosive Challenge Blog!! - something with good luck on it

And if you've made it this far, you've got a little bit of the Blarney stone coming to ya! Nah, not really, but I do have some blog candy that I've been meaning to give away. As I meant to do this with my post on Monday which was my 100th, I'll now make it for my 101st post and in honor of St. Patty's Day (gotta a wee bit of the Irish in me too)!

So if you're interested in some "candy," be sure to leave a comment on this post saying you want to be entered in the drawing. I don't have a picture of what I'll send to ya if you're chosen, but I know there will be some clear stamps, various embellishments, and some real Hawaiian candy in there. The drawing will be next Tuesday night (that's March 23rd and Hawaiian time...we're 6 hours behind the East coast now) with the winner will be announced in my next week's 365 Card post.
Well, that's it for this week and can't wait to see what you come up for this challenge!
Aloha,

Magical Monday - Non-Traditional Bunny Cupcake!

Aloha and E Komo Mai to another edition of Magical Monday at There's Magic in the Air with Paper Cupcakes! This week I got to set the challenge using this adorable image, Bunny Cupcake, by Nina! I want to see "non-traditional" cards with this image on them. What does that mean? Any type of card but a regular side or top fold. Splitcoast Stampers is a great resource for a mutlitude of cards like this and that is where I found the toot for the Spring Card I made. Here's the link for it. If you don't mind a little bit of folding, it's SUPER easy!!! Other deets...I added some circle flowers on the bottom using scraps from the card base...just realized that the top layer really looks like a fried egg with that yellow brad! :) The bunny is colored with Prismamarkers and added a bit of sparkley glue to the top to bling it up a bit. The sentiment was stamped using my JustRite stamper (tilt your head a bit and it'll be centered!) :)

Here's the other challenges this one will go to:
1. C.R.A.F.T - "Citrus" colour challenge: got lime, orange, red and pink grapefruit!
2. Crafty Creations Challenges - Make your own flowers
3. One stop Craft challenge -  Spots and Dots
4. Paper Sundaes - Create a multifold Easter or Spring card
5. Susie's Sassy Designs from Die Cut Dreams - Easter
6. Totally Gorjuss - Something Sweet

Mahalo for coming by this week and can't wait to see what you come up for this challenge!
Aloha,

365 Cards - Day 10 - Wacky Color Wednesday!

Aloha and E Komo Mai (Hello and Welcome) to my first official post as a member of the 365 Cards Design Team!!!

    

This is the place that I found my groove as a card maker and I hope I can inspire you to do the same (or keep yours going as that can sometimes be a problem too!).

Anywhoo, I got the awesome challenge of Wacky Color Wednesday (orange, purple, and blue ) during this super fun Stretch n' Bubbles week! Well, can't say that I use orange or purple too often (except at Halloween!), but I tried my best to do justice to all of these colors in this one. I had a bugger of a time getting a reasonably good photo of all of it. That purple metallic paper just gave me fits! It's kinda hard to tell but I embossed that layer with a texture plate from SU! That's also a layer of blue glitter paper behind the sky paper. The fun rocket ship image was colored with a Prismacolor Silver paint pen and Prismacolor markers of purple and orange. I put some glassy accent on the colored elements of the ship to give it some shine. The "flames" coming out of the boosters are the MS grass punch sponged with Tangerine Tango ink. And that fluffly stuff behind them...that's Malie's contribution. She tore up one of her toys so I had some stuffing to use as the "smoke"! Wasn't that thoughtful of her to help me like that?!? :)

You'll also find that I like to combine challenges so here's some other challenge inspirations that I used on this card:

1. allsorts challenge blog - Just for men: Well, for boys too...

2. Alota Rubber Stamps - sketch

3. Bee Crafty - embossing + digi image

4. Creative Inspirations Challenge - Male card

5. Creative Belli - Eyelets

6. Creative Card Crew - Celebration's: Birthday!

7. Delightful Sketches & Challenges - Kids

8. One stop Craft challenge - Sew Simple: use real of faux stitching: edged the cloud paper with faux stitches (thought that went well with those already on image!)

9. Sweet Stampin Challenge Blog - Something for a Child

Please, let me know if you need any other details on my project. Hope to see you back here next week!

Aloha,

P.S. Malie wanted her picture posted too , so here she is!

Magical Monday - Green and Gold Pot o' Gold

Welcome to another edition of Magical Monday at There's Magic in the Air with Paper Cupcakes! Thank you to those of you who played along with us last week and I can't wait to see what you come up with using this week's image. Just a wee bit of Irish luck for you lassies and laddies! You can pick up this week's free image (Pot of Gold) at TMITA and make your own creation following Danielle's challenge of Green and Gold (other than on the image) plus a bonus to use metal. Well, I had super fun with this one! I used gold metallic paper which gives it a little bling, plus with the gold stickles and metal stick on snaps/brads, this one is just shining all over the place (I think my leprechaun belongs in Vegas with that gold stickled shirt!)! Used my Prismacolor Markers to color the image and added glassy accent to the rainbow.

Here's a side view:

Since I was creating this a little later than usual I was also able to play along with some other challenges and here they are:

1.  "Just Us Girls" Challenge - sketch

2. Cooking it up with Katie - Paper Tole technique (see picture above) + favorite challenge (well, TMITA fits this one!)

3. Crazy 4 Challenges - Paper Piercing: Kinda hard to see this, but I pierced the shape of a small flourish stamp I had underneath the sentiment

4. Cupcake Craft Challenges - Round and Round (use circles): got the image in circles and all those faux brads going doing the left side :)

5. Cute Card Thursday - Challenge 102 - Lucky Green!

6. Die-cut Dreams Challenge Blog - No Flowers allowed

7. digital tuesday challenge - use scallops and a digi: got scallops down the right side of the front plus on the inside panel

8. lili of the valley - Easel Card

9. Penny's Paper-Crafty Challenge - Green for St. Patty's Day!

10. SophistiCat Challenge Blog - Flourishes and Bling: got one little flourish on the front and I thought the metallic paper, stickles, and shiny brads were "bling-y" :)

Thanks for stopping by and can't wait to see what you come with for this week's challenge. And just a little motivation to play along, here's the prize available this week:

Aloha,

Just for F-U-N!!!

Well, after the crazy busy week I had with getting stuff done for my J-O-B (can I say that I'm so OVER writing reports?!? UGH!), I was so relieved to make it to the weekend so I could have F-U-N!!! I completed some DT stuff which you'll see later this week, but here's something that I did kinda just for fun. Actually, it was to help appease my guilt for not being able to complete my first Wednesday DT card for 365 Cards (Day 3 - String Art). THANK you so much Pam for stepping in for me(!!!), and here's what I would've done had I not been getting my "real" work done! :) I also like to participate in the MOJO challenge when I can, so this follows that sketch. Here's some other challenges I used:

1. A Spoon Full of Sugar - Beads: Just got two on this one but thought they finished the corners off nicely

2. Alphabet Challenge Blog - S is for Stamping: used SU! Dream Garden and Kanji sets

3. Colour Create Challenge Blog - RED, BLACK and OFF WHITE (optional extra, SILVER/PEWTER BRADS): got'em all

4. Lots To Do - Distressing: might be hard to tell but the left and right sides of the embossed panel are distressed as well as the sentiment panels

5. Pollycraft Monday Challenge - distressing: see above

6. SophistiCat Challenge Blog - Oriental

7. The Corrosive Challenge Blog - Asian themed

And if you're new to my blog, I've set a personal challenge for this year of finishing the inside of my creations. I got tired of showing what I created to others and their looks of disappointment when opening the card and gazing at the unfinished insides. I've found it's a great way to use up some of those scraps! So, here's evidence of my doing that:

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a most excellent week!

Aloha,

Magical Monday + Fabulous News!!

Aloha and E Komo Mai to another edition of Magical Monday at There's Magic in the Air with Paper Cupcakes! This week's challenge is to use any Paper Cupcakes image you have (want some new images? Check out the store, Nina added 25 new images last week!! SO CUTE!) or you can use the free one from this week and follow the sketch by our own Patti Nelson!

I used Izzy and Pouch - Happy Birthday and followed Patti's sketch pretty closely (just added some embellies!). I LOVE this DSP from SU! (Rainbow Sherbet) - it's just so bright and cheery! The tag was made from a vellum metal rim tag I had and a Happy Birthday rub-on. And again meeting my personal challenge of finishing the inside, here's the pic of that:

This week's random winner will get to pick a free digital stamp from Nina's store, so play along with us and you might win too!

I'd also like to welcome our March Guest Designer, the fabulous Pat Pedder!!! We are so lucky to have another talented guest on our team this month! Aloha, Pat!

And as I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I went to Maui on President's Day to visit with some family that were vacationing there. I haven't had a chance to post any pics of the trip so I thought I'd post a few here...I know some of you are still buried under snow and/or are suffering through the cold so hopefully these will warm you up (and other than worrying about what ended up to be a minor tsunami today, it's usually this gorgeous here!). Most of my visit to Maui was spent going on a humpback whale watching tour with the family. The pics are from that...I'll keep'em small as you'll have to enlarge them any way to really see what's going on (those darn whales would not hold still for good close up pictures!)

This one is of three whales spouting (coming up for breath), that's what those three white puffs are.

We happened upon a "competition pod" (i.e., males vying for female attention) that was very active, we saw lots of tails in the air and those tails coming down for big splashes (see next pic)

In the one above you can see a tail of one whale and the humped back of another.

And finally here's a pic from the ocean looking back at the west coast of Maui!

I've lived here 7 years and I'm still awed by such views!

And LASTLY but not leastly (if you made it this far...YEAH!!), I am super excited and proud to announce that I've been asked to join the 365 Cards Design Team for the coming year!!!! WHOOOHOOO!!! This challenge has a special place in my heart as it's really the one that got my mojo flowing with the daily challenges. I'm so excited to work with the super talented design team members and can't wait to see what else Pam has in store for us this year! It's going to be an AWESOME year!

Aloha,