Only As. . .

My niece called me earlier this week very excited. She had just gotten a call from her first choice college that she has been accepted for attendance next fall. Way to go Rach! In honor of this special occasion, I made this card to send to say "congratulations". 

All of the card stock and patterned paper are from the February Key Ingredients kit. I love the papers that Taylor picked out to put in this month's kit. I also love the poem that makes up this stamp from the TE New Beginnings set, and thought it perfect for a young lady getting ready to embark soon on college life. 

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All of the stamps are from this same TE set, New Beginnings, and  the TE Frame It Up 1 die was used to cut out the stamped frame and poem. For a little added bling, pink Stickles were used on the outlines and center of the rose and pink rhinestones accent the frame.

Supplies

Stamps: New Beginnings set from Taylored Expressions

Card stock: dark red, light green and choice buttercream from the February Key Ingredients kit

Patterned paper: Lush by My Mind's Eye

Ink: SU cherry cobbler, pretty in pink and pear pizzazz

Other: TE Frame It Up 1 and Leafy Branch dies, SU border punch, pink Stickles, pink rhinestones, the Big Shot, and diemnsionals

Have a great Saturday evening and enjoy the rest of your weekend,

Colleen

Hugs and Kisses Gator Valentine's Day Card

Hey again stampers,

My second post today is a Valentine's Day card made for Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch challenge 104 and Stacey's Curtain Call Color challenge, Act 69. When I saw the colors that Stacey picked out for us this week, tailor made for Valentine's Day cards, I took the opportunity to make one for a fun little four year old guy named Nic. I hope he likes this cute gator with the sparkly hearts.

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Karen's sketch:

Curtain Call Colors:

Lots of embellishments on this card. One of the trendy looks that I love is sewing on cards. I bought a very inexpensive mini sewing machine several months ago for this purpose. I'm trying to use it more, and clearly I need the practice. Not sure if it's the lightness of the machine, but I have a really difficult time keeping things straight. Plus the zig-zag stitches (there are 3) are all big. So, I'm not "in love" with it, but I will keep practicing. Eventually, I will figure out it's quirks.

Supplies

Stamps: Animal Valentines and XOXO both by Stampin' Up

Card stock: all SU cherry cobbler, real red, crumb cake, whisper white and SU red glitter paper

Patterned paper: Stampin' Up DSP (actually from a Christmas themed pack)

Ink: memento rich cocoa and cherry cobbler. Crumb cake, yellow and black SU markers

Other: SU triple heart and round punches, SU thatched square embossing folder, red glitter candy dots, sewing machine, the Big shot, quickie glue pen, and dimensionals.

Time to get something else done besides stamping. Our friends, Nic and his parents, are coming later for dinner. I can give Nic his card.

Have a great week all,

Colleen

Tweeting by. . . Sweet Stop Sketch 95

I inked up another new stamp yesterday afternoon to play along with this week's Sweet Stop Sketch challenge #95. The rectangle shaped panel was perfect for a PI girl. I decided to make this one really bright and summery. These green papers came with my last Taylored Expressions order, and since green is one of my favorite colors, I decided to use them to help show off this little girl. As you can see, they were used to paper piece her cute little jumper dress. The tee shirt and heart sash are pieced with some pixie pink card stock. Using a glue pen sure makes gluing small pieces like this easy.

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Supplies

Stamps: Pure Innocence "You're So Tweet" by My Favorite Things

Card stock: SU whisper white, pink passion, and pixie pink

Patterned paper: from Taylored Expressions

Ink: memento tuxedo black, Copics

Other: Rectangle nesties, SU pink felt flowers, TE green buttons, TE green ribbon, Kaiser green pearls, EK flower border punch, SU punches, SU twine, TE pink flower rhinestone, the Big Shot, Quickie glue pen, and dimensionals.

Now it's time to work on some Sunday sketch challenges. Have a fabulous day,

Colleen 

Mojo Monday sketch 177 - You Lift Me Up!

Good Saturday afternoon all,

A quick post this afternoon with a card I made for this week's Mojo Monday sketch. It took me a couple starts to come up with something I liked for this sketch. Persistence paid off and I really think this one turned out fine. I combined a couple different stamp sets, some new tools and embellishments and some paper piecing to pull it all together.

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Supplies

Stamps: XOXO by Stampin' Up and Cuppie Love Scenes by Taylored Expressions

Card stock: SU basic grey, real red and whisper white

Patterned paper: SU Love Impressions

Ink: SU real red, memento tuxedo black, Copics

Other: TE Impressions die, TE clouds die, SU round punches, TE brads, the Big Shot, sewing machine, and dimensionals

I hope your weekend is good. Thanks for stopping by today,

Colleen

If You Can Dream It - MFTWSC6

Happy, happy Friday,

Is everyone looking forward to the weekend? We are having dinner out with friends tonight. We're going to a new concept restaurant called a "Pop up".  Apparently it's the newest "thing" dining.

Today I have a card that I made for the My Favorite Things Wednesday Sketch challenge. This is the first time that I've participated in this challenge. I liked that the layout this week seemed to call for a sentiment based card. They are not my usual style, however, I've managed to make two this week.

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Supplies

Stamps: New Beginnings by Taylored Expressions

Card stock: SU textured grey, textured black and whisper white

Patterned paper: Echo Park "Be Mine"

Ink: memento tuxedo black

Other: Die-namics rolled flower die, Zva pearl flourishes, Kaiser pearls, SU punch, the Big Shot, and dimensionals

Have a great weekend everyone,

Colleen

Life Is Short, Eat the Icing First

Hi again everyone,

Since it's Thursday, I decided to make a card this afternoon and participate in The Spotted Chick's Krafty Thursday # 47 challenge. I'm using one of my new PI stamp sets. (as I mentioned earlier, I did a lot of craft shopping to relieve boredom over the past month) These little girls are sooooo cute! For the layout, I followed this weeks Sweet Stop #94 sketch.

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and here's a pic of the inside:

Supplies
Stamps: Pure Innocence "Hello Cupcake" by My Favorite Things
Card stock: SU crumb cake, night of navy, marina mist and TE choice buttercream
Patterned paper: Jen Allyson and SU
Ink: SU night of navy and crumb cake, Copics
Other: classic circle Nesties, TE picket fence die, TE impressions background die, SU felt flowers, blue candy dot, expresso dimensional pearls, red liquid pearls, china mist Stickles, the Big Shot, and dimensionals.

Back tomorrow with a card for the Wednesday MFT sketch challenge. Have a great evening,
Colleen

Go Confidently - SSSC103

Well "hello" fellow stampers,

After four weeks of restriction from using my right arm for pretty much everything, I have finally been given permission to begin doing some "light" tasks. Of course, one of the first things I asked my Dr. and Physical Therapist about was paper crafting. After explaining what tasks it involves, I was given permission to do so with a limit of 40 minute blocks of time. You can't imagine how happy this has made me! Forty minutes flies by, since I'm a little on the slow side using my left arm/hand for things like using the Big Shot, my large paper cutter, and even inking and stamping, but, I'm so happy to be able to start to craft again.

While I have not been able to make anything for the last four weeks, I have been checking in with many of you daily out in 'blog land" and I have seen beautiful and inspiring examples. Thanks to you all for helping to keep my spirits up in my down time.

I've made three cards over the last couple days. The one I picked to show today is for Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch challenge, #103.
As I've said before, the SSSC is one of my favorite challenges to participate in, so that's what I picked to get started again. I love this week's sketch. I pulled out some bright and summery papers, some butterflies and ribbon to pull it all together.

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For the last month, I've been pretty much limited to reading, watching TV and surfing the internet, which, translates to shopping. I have many new stamps and supplies that I can't wait to use!

Supplies

Stamps: New Beginnings by Taylored Expressions

Card stock: SU cherry cobbler and whisper white

Patterned papers: Walk In the Park by Echo Park

Ink: SU early expresso

Other: SU ribbon and twine, classic circle, big scalloped circle and curved rectangle Nesties, orange candy dots, butterfly embellishments from TE, the Big Shot, and dimensionals

Thanks so much for stopping by today,

Colleen