A New Toy

Summer is definitely in full swing at our house now :) Sara has had double header softball games for 2 days straight, and has another one Thursday. Their season has started out very well, they've won 6, lost 1 and tied 1. They are so much fun to watch too! Ben did wake up before I left this morning :)

I have a new toy. First I'll tell you about the challenge. The House Mouse challenge this week is to use the colors red, white and blue. I thought about making a July 4th card, but I just wasn't ready to do that yet, so I decided on strawberries instead. I colored with prismacolor pencils and mineral spirits and then colored the strawberry seeds with Spica glitter pen in silver. The dark grey and blacks were too dark, so I used the silver. It's fun with the little bit of sparkle.

My new toy is the EKSuccess border punch. I have always admired the SU punch that's similar to this one, but never bought it. So one day I was in Archiver's with my 30% off coupon and saw it. The rest is history :) The other fun thing on this one is the photo turn. It was just silver and I colored it and the brad with my Copics.

Supplies:
Stamps: Sleeping with Strawberries, Thanks Berry Much
Ink: Versafine - Onyx Black, Chalk Ink - chestnut roan, VersaColor - Atlantic, VersaMagic - Sahara Sand
Paper: MME-Barn Striped Paper, Basic Grey - Mellow-Savory
Other: Nesties, EKSuccess Border Punch, Photo turn and brad

This card is a card I made in the middle of the night. I couldn't sleep one night, so I went into my studio and this is what I made. It is SO SIMPLE! The focus is the patterned paper. Webster's Pages has the most beautiful paper. It's so beautiful that I don't want to scrapbook on it, I just don't want to cover the beautiful images. So I made this card instead. The only thing I stamped is the verse from the Value of Joy set. I embossed the butterfly with clear embossing powder to make it shine and I added sheer ribbon.

Supplies:
Stamps: Value of Joy - 2RedBananas
Ink: Chalk Ink - chestnut roan, Versafine Onyx Black
Paper: Webster's Pages - Peacefulness
Other: ribbon, clear embossing powder

Our quote for the day: "Today, let your heart dance. You will find no shortage of dance partners, as your feet join in. And your eyes. And your smile. And every part of your body and your feelings. Let your heart dance all day long." - Unknown

Thanks for stopping by and have a great evening!

Soft Colors for this Challenge

Good Evening! It's a relaxing Friday evening here tonight and I'm stamping :) I usually don't use pastel colors very often, but this one is kind of a mix of medium colors not really pastels. Anyway, it's lighter than I usually use. I've had this paper forever!! It's from K&Co and the paper itself is embossed.

This card was made for the Limited Supplies challenge on SCS. The challenge was to use only a stamp with words on it, no images. Well, I went right for this quote from Jami's "Value of Joy" set. I love it and it fits so well with this paper.

I started with the K&Co paper and added corners that I cut with the cuttlebug corner die. I stamped the quote with Versafine-sepia and cut it out with the long skinny scalloped nesties. I inked the edges of both papers with Colorbox Chalk ink in Warm Violet. I tied the ivory grosgrain ribbon in a knot pop-dotted the quote over the ribbon and added all the pearls. I also painted the butterfly with Angel Wings Shimmerz, but you can't see how shimmery it is in the picture. Have I told you how much I love challenges lately?

Speaking of challenges, on the right side of my blog I have added a section for challenges. Check both of those links out, they're really cool!

Our quote for the day: "What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the Master calls a butterfly." - Richard Bach

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great evening!

the Value of Joy

Good Morning! So are you enjoying all this blog hopping that we're doing this week? I sure hope so! Today's featured set is Jami Bova's third set to be released this month. It's call "The Value of Joy" and is such a SWEET set! I just LOVE it!

For this card, I used one of the two sentiments that come with the set. To see the other sentiment you'll have to start your blog hopping ;). I had alot of fun with this set because I used Shimmerz and Blingz on both of my cards. Great image for that :)

For this first card, I started with a cream cardstock background and then layered some Webster's Pages papers, first the brown is "Bountiful" from the Inspired collection, then the blue is "Peacefulness" again from the Inspired collection. Then a layer of Bazzill Bling and then another layer of the "bountiful" paper, then my image. Since I put so many layers on the image, I chose to stamp the sentiment directly on the "Peacefulness" paper and use it that way. I colored with prismacolor pencils and mineral spirits and added bubblegum shimmerz to the flowers. I also used the brown wrinkled ribbon to tie the sentiment on.

This second card is made with softer colors again. I started with a periwinkle cardstock base and then layered Webster's Pages "Secret Garden" paper from the reflections of nature collection. I colored the image with prismacolor pencils and mineral spirits and then added both Shimmerz and Blingz to this one. You can see these better in the close up picture. I sponged Antique Linen distress ink around all the pieces. The corners are punched from an EKSuccess corner punch and are Bazzill bling and then you know I had to add some dew drops since the first cards doesn't have any :)

In this picture, you can see the Shimmerz and the Blingz really well. The Shimmerz is Lilac colored and is on the flowers. The Blingz is December Sky and is on the puppy's bandana. The difference between the Shimmerz and the Blingz is that the Blingz is a little chunkier, you get bits of shimmer instead of a really smooth shimmer. It's FUN!

Now to the blog hopping. If you've been hopping with us all week, you know one thing you have to do is visit all the dt member's blogs and see what they did with the featured set today. Then leave them a comment. After that, go to the 2RedBananas blog and answer our question of the day in a comment. Then you will be eligible to win the blog candy for today, which is a set of "the Value of Joy" stamps!!!! So get hoppin'!

Our quote for the day: "Beauty is whatever gives joy." - Hugh Nibley

Thanks so much for stopping by and enjoy hopping around with us today!