TST # 156 - Happy Birthday to Us!

Happy Birthday to US! That is the twist to todays Try Stampin on Tuesday sketch challenge.

 

Twist:  anything goes, Happy Birthday to US

So with the anything goes, I decided to use some more of my paint chips to create my card.  Yes people when you have to start paying for paint chips, I may be part of the reason.  

Using the scraps from the post yesterday I stamped the paint chips using chocolate chip, and then because of the coating on the paint chips within a few seconds the brown turns to more of a lighter grey colour.  You have to be careful once you have stamped on the paint chips because the ink will smug if you handle it.

The end result is a very simple pastel card with a plain and simple message "Happy Birthday".

Now it's your turn.  Come and join our Birthday party and show us what you got!

Need more inspiration, hop on over to the Try Stampin site and see what the other Great Designers have in store for you.

Thanks for stopping by.

Nancy

Your comments mean a lot to me so please remember to leave one.

HOC Clean & Simple or Classic & Elegant?

I have already posted my card for the House of Cards Clean & Simple, but I have one more card to show you.  This one I made for my husband for our 37th Anniversary this year. 

When I started the card I thought it would be okay for my Clean & Simple card, but once I was finished I thought it was a little too detailed for that entry so I decided to show it as a Classic & Elegant style.  What are your thoughts?

 

Once again this was the inspiration for the challenge.  Use the colours or the picture for your inspiration.  I decide to use a little of both.  I remember back in our courting days, as short as they were since we only new each other for 3 days before he asked me to marry him, he would bring me home flowers for no reason and just say "I Love You". 

Here is a closer look at the flowers and the hearts.  The flowers were made using the smallest of the Heart to Heart punch.  I punched out 3 hearts, sponged them and then folded them in half and glued 3 hearts together to form the flower.

 

  

The sentiment inside was inspired by our somewhat first date, a simple cup of coffee!  And yes the sentiment holds very true, I do love him more than our first cup of coffee!

So now you can decide.  Is this what you would call Clean & Simple or Classic & Elegant?

Thanks for stopping by.

Nancy

Your comments mean a lot to me so please remember to leave one.

 

 

HOC C&S - Life is not Boring!

This month of course has Valentine's Day, and I know this is a little late, but I have decided to post a card for you today for House of Cards that I will be using it for Valentine's Day myself.  With all that has been going on lately my Dear Husband will totally get this card.

This fortnight, we're asking for 

CLEAN & SIMPLE OR CLASSIC/ELEGANT CARDS

PLUS WE'D LIKE YOU TO BE INSPIRED

BY EITHER THE COLORS OR THE PHOTO

OR BOTH~

 

Now there is two challenges for me doing this card.  One as mentioned in an earlier post I didn't bring a lot of my stamping supplies with me and two I don't have any of these colours so I had to improvise, so off to the hardware store.

 

I visited the local Lowes and picked up some paint chips in each of the different colours.  I didn't know what I would do with them but at least I had the colours I needed.  

First I thought hearts, lots of hearts, but it didn't look right and there wasn't enough punch for the background so I went to the kitchen and emptied the limes we had bought and used the netting from the bag to stamp over the flourish.

Then when I was just about to give up and wait till later I started to clean up my supplies and noticed my new stamp from Heidi Swapp and Bingo - everything came together.

Our lives have been extremely hectic lately and even with a much needed vacation I still don't feel like I have had a chance to relax, since I have been in daily contact with back home.  Since we have been away the Retirement home my Dad is in has called my Daughter several times for things and she has been looking after him for me, as well as my Daughter wrote her board exams for Dental Hygiene - AND PASSED! - thank you! and then her boyfriends 18-year-old neices Dad (got all that) passed away suddenly without cause.  So never a dull moment.

I found wording on Pinterest that is very appropriate for the inside of the card "admit it LIFE would be BORING without me!"  So true these days.  But we take each day as it comes and make the best of what we have and at least we have each other.

Now it's your turn.  Need some more inspiration..then pop on over to the HOC site and see what the other great designers have in store for you.  Remember this two weeks is about Clean and Simple and Classic and Elegant cards.

Thanks for stopping by.

Nancy

Your comments mean a lot to me so please remember to leave one.

TST #154 Time to Shop

It has been crazy the last couple of weeks with the weather.  We managed to get away for a bit and wouldn't you know it we manage to pick the time that Florida decided to get snow.  Yes Snow!  We left three feet of snow back home, to come down here to even just a skiff, but enough to paralyze everything here.

 

Behind our house on next

street.

Our front door overhang.

  

Time to walk the Cody, our dog.

Who is looking at his Daddy as much to say "you promised me warmer weather...and NO SNOW!"

At any rate you make the best of what you have and with the cold weather it was time to shop.  I didn't bring a lot of my supplies with me this year, compared to prior years.  I had a shopping list of things that I wanted to try and find while away and have only managed to find one of the items.  However I did manage to find several other items that I know I cannot get back home.  Time to print the coupons and save on new items for my stash.

So this week at Try Stampin on Tuesday I have used all of my new items.  The Michael's down here cares a new line called "Heidi Swapp".  She features stencils, which I purchased a few, and some rather unique stamps.

 

Use Red, Pink and White

When I first saw this sketch I could see corrigated paper, but I forgot to bring my crimper so I had to change my thoughts.

I don't know if I will use this card for Valentines Day or a Birthday, or even a Just Because card, but at least it gave me a change to try out some of my new stamps.

I hope you like what I have come up with. Now it's your turn.  Need some more inspiration, hop on over to the TST site and see what the other Great Designers have in store for you.  You will not be disappointed. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Nancy

Your comments mean a lot to me so please remember to leave one.

PS: the weather did change within 48 hours and we were into our shorts - thank you!

TST #152

Don't know about the rest of you folks but "are you tired of snow yet!".  Over the past couple of days while I was making this card we managed to obtain at least 18 inches and as I type out this blog post it is snowing yet again.  Maybe that is why I decided to take todays Try Stampin on Tuesday and make it a Clean and Simple card with a punch of colour.

Our twist today with the sketch is to make it "Well Worn", however, I missed that part when I was putting my card together, but if you consider all the shovelling that I have done lately I would say that would be my "Well Worn" portion!

I had a couple of attempts at this card.  First I thought I would use the new Pantone colour for 2014 a shade of purple, but then couldn't get the effect that I wanted for the card so then I decided to venture through my various stamps and found "Meadow" which I purchased last year and loved the look of it when I bought it be haven't used it.  I really do need to go through my stamps and have a garage sale of the ones I don't use.

My punch of colour comes with the sun.  I punched out a circle on a Post-it note and sponged the sun.  I had originally planed on only having this as a white card but then when I was stamping the sentiment I slipped and the image doubled itself so round two I trimmed out the original card and mounted it on the yellow CS.

Clean and Simple, quick and easy - unless you slip!

Hope you like what I have come up with, now it's your turn.  Need more inspiration, hop on over to the TST site and see what the other Great Designers have in store for you.

Thanks for stopping by.

Nancy

Your comments mean a lot to me so please remember to leave one!

HOC C&S Sketch 3

Well a new year has arrived and we are into a new session of House of Cards Challenges.  This month we are looking at a Sketch Challenge.

Now trying to keep this card in the Clean and Simple style may pose a challenge to you but the easiest way around the background for me was to emboss it.  This still left plenty of "white space".

 Starting with the Modern Wallpaper embossing folder I embossed the upper portion of the card only.  This gave the illusion of the darker colour on the sketch.  Then using the Apothecary Accents I die cut two of the coloured CS and one white.  The white one I stamped using the words from the French Foliage stamp set and the coloured CS was used to create a frame around the white.

Then using the Beautiful Wings sizzlet die I die cut three sets of butterflies.  The largest was used for the top and then two of the smaller ones were used as the base to create the 3D effect of the butterfly.  You can see the smaller butterflies on the picture below.

 

The butterfly was then attached to the frame and using dimensionals adhered to the card base.  

When creating a Clean and Simple card you want just that.  I would have preferred to do just stamping, but when I saw the sketch this vision immediately popped into my head.

I hope you like what I have come up with.  We have some new talented Designers with us for this next six month period and I hope that you will take the time to see what they have envisioned for this sketch.  Then once you have seen what everyone else has come up with...you guessed it, it's your turn.  Have some fun with this sketch.

Thanks for stopping by.

Nancy

Your comments mean a lot to me so please remember to leave one.

TST #150 Happy Birthday Dear You...

Wow can you believe that we are at 150 great sketch challenges over at Try Stampin on Tuesday.  Seems like just yesterday that I joined this group first off participating in the challenges and then being asked to join such a great group of gals as a Designer.

Today we have a quick and easy sketch challenge for you, however we are asking that you incorporate "Polka Dots".

Please use Polka Dots

I kind of sneaked in my Polka Dots as a DSP in the background, but I still managed to get them in.

Usually I only show one view of my card but the polka dots were just peaking through on the first shot so I decided to show a second view which also gives a closer look at the bow.

My bow was made with the bowmaker my DH made for me even though I am still getting used to working with it it is great for getting just the right sized bow.  

This card is for a colleague that is a bit of a jewelry hound so that is why I chose to put the extra Bling on the card.

Hope you like what I have come up with, now it's your turn.  Need more inspiration then hop on over to the Try Stampin site and see what the other great Designers have in store for you.

Thanks for stopping by.

Nancy

Your comments mean a lot to me so please remember to leave one.