Banana Split Sunday!

I hope that all of my fellow Americans are enjoying the long holiday weekend! We're having a great time here! We started off celebrating my birthday on Thursday...Latisha treated me to a lovely full afternoon tea at the Strawberry Tea Room. My cousin's brand new grand-daughter, Alice Grace, was born on my birthday. That evening we got together with our neighbors Luis and Melanie and Luis' parents Luis and Fabi for Japanese hibachi dinner. I spent Friday in pj's stamping the day away, and yesterday we went to see Ice Age 2 in 3D. So funny!

Today's Banana Split Sunday challenge is in keeping with the 4th of July holiday, to make something patriotic. I have to laugh when I look at today's card, because I actually started this one for last week's inspiration challenge but it took on a life of its own and ended up being patriotic when that was not my intention, so I saved it for today and started over. (You can see what I ended up with for last week's challenge here if you haven't already taken a peek at it). And then, after all that, I nearly forgot to upload it! Oops! The other funny thing is that Jeanette and I were on the same wavelength! Our cards for today's challenge both use stars and Sgt. Chicken. I used the stars from May's journaling spot to stamp a background, then added buttons, a dangling *dog tag* and rub-on letters from my long-neglected scrapbook stash.

The Banana Blog features creations from all our designers...it's also the place to link your card when you've finished creating it. We would love for you to play along. Cards created for this challenge would be the perfect donation to Cards for Heroes! Those who serve deserve our gratitude!

One more DRS project!

My time at DRS is officially over, but I volunteered to post a project to the DRS blog and this is what I came up with. Simple and sweet...

Color Dare #23

Today's Color Dare colors are Bashful Blue, Blush Blossom, Handsome Hunter, and Kraft. They just made me think of Granny from Our Craft Lounge! I think this stamp is hilarious! I was so excited to win this set in an OCL sketch challenge a while back!

I love my Stampin' Up markers, but since I have been playing with my Copics the SU markers have been sorta neglected, so I thought it might be kinda fun to pull them out for this card. I used them to color everything except her hair, which I colored with a Copic C1 and then swirlied with a silver gel pen. I went back over the flower centers with a white gel pen to give them a brighter contrast and a little texture. I also added a bit of Spica sparkle to the nails on her fingers and toes and her necklace and bracelets.

I kept the layout simple with fewer layers than usual. The Cuttlebug dotted swiss embossing added some textural interest. For the sentiment, I used markers directly to the stamp. To finish, I punched a scalloped circle, snipped every other scallop toward the center and then curled them to make flower petals (thanks Jami!) with a 5 petal flower center and button.

Visit the Color Dare blog for more inspiration and to leave your link after you've played along! These colors were fun!

Sweet 'n Sassy Farewell Blog Hop

Today SNS says farewell to several members of its current team--Cindy, Faith, Lorie, Sarah and me. {{hugs}} girlfriends! I've been so honored to serve with you! I'm excited to congratulate several team members who will move on to Sr Designer positions, and to welcome the stampers who are just joining the team!

As I think back over the last six months, I am overwhelmed with feelings of gratitude! I cannot believe how quickly time has passed and how dramatically life has changed in such a short period of time! It seems like it was only yesterday that I was squealing with delight because Korin had invited me to be a member of her Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps design team! I was SO thrilled! Now it's already time to say goodbye! How fun it has been, and how much I've learned! What a fantastic experience! It has been such a privilege to be part of this amazing group...it is much more like family than a design team, and it is very bittersweet to move on! Ecclesiastes says...to everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under Heaven. I pray that I can gracefully transition! I am such a sentimental, sensitive person that it isn't something I enjoy doing! I think my experiences as a Navy wife have made me that much more reluctant because I know firsthand how hard it is to maintain friendships after moving. Even with all of our good intentions, the hectic reality of life makes it very difficult.

Hehehe...isn't it appropriate then that my card for today is a little caterpillar inching his way along! I stamped him using Memento Rich Cocoa, then colored him with prismas and Gamsol. My card is constructed using Basic Grey 6 x 6 papers from the Boxer collection and this week's Sweet Stop sketch. All of the papers were distressed with Tim Holtz distress ink. I framed the sentiment with a couple of button-trimmed flowers and several sprigs of greenery punched with a MS fern punch...reminds me of the frilly parsley that the caterpillars devoured COMPLETELY several years ago! They didn't leave us even one tiny sprig!

Thank you Korin, and all of the rest of the Sweet 'n Sassy team, for welcoming me with open arms, for sharing your expertise and your love of stamping, and for your faithful witness of Christ. I have been so blessed by you! I sincerely hope that the bonds we've made during this time together will hold firm as we enter these new seasons of our lives. Blessings to you and yours, my friends!

Bling it On, Baby!

Our i {heart} papers design team was challenged to create a card with bling! Can there be TOO much bling?! This card is definitely blinging every which way, so the answer certainly could be yes!

The inspiration for this card came from two sources...this sparkly SEI Lovebirds designer paper and a Hero Arts stamp set that comes with its own bling right in the package! I stamped the image using Memento Rich Cocoa ink and colored it in with Copic markers in several shades of pink. I colored in a faint background using prismas and Gamsol. The butterfly and sentiment were stamped in Regal Rose. Then I used a matching marker to make a little twisting trail. All of the leaves and the butterfly's wings were colored with a clear Copic spica glitter pen to give them some sparkle to match the rest of the card. I used some circle nestabilities along with Labels 3 to cut and emboss the image. The pink rhinestones are from the stamp set (and there are still several colors of rhinestones left for more projects)! I used a lacy edge punch to dress up a strip of regal rose...even the pink and aqua ribbon trim is glitsy!

Be sure to visit my ihp DT mates' blogs to see all of their sparkling creations!

Amber * Carolyn * Cathleen * Dee * Kate
Loretta * Lori * Lynn * Meredith * Tracy

DRS Challenge--Dazzling Diamond Dust

I'm sure you're not surprised to see another coffee card! I actually had this one coffee cup left over from my other DRS coffee projects, and it goes perfectly with this paper, so I decided to dazzle it up with some Versamark and a mixture of clear EP, iridescent EP and glitter. The designer paper has flowers that are glossy, almost like enamel, and I thought this combination of textures would be really pretty together. I may try again in brighter light to see if I can capture it better on camera.

Lots of eye candy on the DRS blog today, so don't miss it!

Banana Split Sunday!

Today's Banana Split Challenge is to create a card from this summery beach image. I was stuck on patriotic when I first started to look at it, but then after coming across one of my favorite chickens, it began to come together.

I stamped Hawaiian Chicken with Memento Tuxedo Black, then colored him with prismas and Gamsol, using a Copic microliner to add in the stripes to his surf board so that it mimicked the slats of the chairs in the photo. I used small and large classic circle nestabilities to cut and emboss the image and mat. The Pacific Point card base was sponged with craft white ink using a scalloped circle as a mask. The Sahara *Sand* was stamped with versamark using a very old (probably one of my first stamps ever) sand dunes stamp.


To bring in some of the turquoise, I added a strip of *waves* with a striped ribbon accent to cover the seam. The sentiment was stamped in Real Red, and embellished with a small red flower-shaped button.

Makes me think of our days on the beach at Barber's Point, or Makaha! I loved living there! My friend Mary *just* moved back to Hawaii. They probably aren't even settled in yet. I miss her already! Can't wait to visit! Aloha a hui hou!

Coloring with Copics

I went to Asela's Copic marker class at A Small Cleverness on Thursday. It was SO much fun and I learned so much! She gave us several Penny Black images stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black to color, and showed us how to blend and shade using different techniques. I learned that I need to work more quickly and with a lighter touch to get the effect that I want. Also, I need to just STOP! I have a tendency to use too little contrast and to over-blend, so I am learning to add more color, blend a tiny bit and then quickly step away!

In class, the flower in this stamped image was colored a beautiful pale pink that I don't have...I ended up going monochromatic, since I had this paper (Piggy Tales' Sun and Up and Down) in mind. I used my blender pen with the same pale yellow and green to barely tint the flower petals. The center was colored and then given a layer of glitz with a gold Spica glitter pen. I colored over the petals with a clear Spica, so they have that pretty *sugary* look that petals often have in nature. Wish I could capture that in a photo! I cut and embossed the image and mat with small and large classic rectangle nestabilities.

My paper flower didn't really match, so I soaked it with blender solution and colored the edges with my Copic marker. That brightened it up a lot and really helped it stand out a bit more.

Every single time I make a card with frogs it makes me think of my friend, Shannon! :) Can't wait 'til CHA!

God Bless the USA!

Today's card is a combo card for SCS's Limited Supplies Challenge, "Chinese Take-out," and The Sweet Stop's sketch with a spin (red, white and blue) for this week. I was thrilled that they worked together! I used a Sweet 'n Sassy digital stamp, Celebrate America, resizing and flipping the image to fit the sketch (there's still one more day for you to play! There will be a new sketch tomorrow!) The rocket was colored with prismas and Gamsol, then shaded along one edge with a Copic blender pen and cool gray marker. I used a microliner to frame the image with a fine line and a few dot-dot-dots. The rest of my supplies are things that have been in my stash for ages...I think both prints came from a big stack of designer papers that my mom sent me forever ago, probably from Michael's or Hobby Lobby. I printed the sentiment, God Bless America, on some white cardstock, then matted it with red for the inside. Relatively clean and simple.

Simple Pleasures

I made this envelope card for today's DRS blog post. You can find out more about it here!