Cameo Flowers for OCCC sketch challenge

I fell in love with Silke's card on the OCCC blog this morning, and I just HAD to case her card. I changed the colors and papers a little bit, and I didn't use a button in the corner. Instead, I punched out a flower and leaf from my Stampin Up Birds and Blooms sizzlet die with Cameo Coral and Old Olive cardstocks. The leaf was too big for the little flower, so I cut it in half, and I punched a small circle from Vanilla cardstock and glued that in the center of the flower.

Everything on this card is from Stampin Up except for the large oval and scallop oval die cuts. I used nestabilities for those two shapes. The flower image was colored with markers directly on the stamp and I huffed onto the rubber right before I pressed it onto the Vanilla cardstock.

I hope Silke doesn't mind that I cased her card. It was so pretty that I just had to try to make my own. :-)

Stamps: Thoughts and Prayers
Ink: Cameo Coral, Old Olive
CS: Cameo Coral, Old Olive, Vanilla
Other: vanilla tafetta ribbon, scallop edge punch, nestabilities ovals, Birds and Blooms sizzlet die, 1/8" hole punch

Blue Chocolate

Sweet N Sassy had a release party last night, and they released some beautiful new stamps. During the party, they issued several challenges. I liked the sketch challenge, so I gave it a shot. I used my Chocoholic set (yum!) with some glittery chocolate cupcake paper (by DCWV). I stamped a row of chocolate chips and cut them apart with scissors, and adhered one in each corner and one at the bottom of the oval.

Do you know how hard it is to stamp straight on an oval??? I tried this thing three times before I got an image that was straight inside the oval. Pshew. Flowers are so much easier - they don't have to be straight. LOL

Hope you have a great weekend!

Belli Challenge #56 - Monograms

This week's Belli Challenge is to pull out your alphabet stamps and create some monogram cards. I know you have some alphabet stamps that have been collecting dust! LOL Dig em up and get em inky!

For my project here, I created a little stationery set. Everything on this project is from Stampin Up, and if you are one of my stamp camp attendees, this is something we will be doing soon! :-)

I love the Lovely Letters alphabet set from Stampin Up. It's just so pretty and feminine, and so perfect for monograms. You could go with any color combo, but I used Eggplant, Regal Rose and So Saffron here.

Create your own monogram card, and please use keyword CBC56 if you upload to SCS or PCP. Here's some more monogram inspiration for you:

Janette Olen - GUEST DESIGNER
Shelly Koskinen
Jennifer Greco
Chris Dickinson
Christi Thorsen
Ceal Pritchett
Debby McGillivray
Courtney Fowler
Danita Hollander
Joan Ervin
Karen Gibson
Lee Murphy
Anne Harada
Joanne Travis

Visit these ladies and leave them some love. I truly appreciate seeing their artwork every week, so be sure and let them know what you think, too! :-)

CBCC #27 - Cracked Kinkade

This week's CBCC challenge is a color challenge. We all created a card or project with Close to Cocoa, Turquoise, and Vanilla.



I stamped the Thomas Kinkade image (available from Cornish Heritage Farms) with Close to Cocoa ink, let it dry, then covered it with Ranger Distress Embossing Ink. It's sort of like Versamark, but it seems to be stickier. Then I covered the image with Ranger Clear UTEE, and melted it with my heat gun. I repeated the embossing ink and UTEE two more times until I had a nice glassy look on top of my stamped image. (You can find the Ranger Distress Embossing Ink and the Clear UTEE at Rubbernecker Stamps.)

The trick to creating cracked glass is to stick your "glassy" image in the freezer for about 4 or 5 minutes, and then stand RIGHT THERE in the freezer and start bending your cardstock. The glass will crack beautifully. Don't walk away from the freezer - your "glassy" image will warm up very quickly and refuse to crack. If your image won't crack, leave it in the freezer for another 5 minutes and try again.

I smooshed my cracked glass image into my Close to Cocoa ink pad and buffed off the ink with a tissue. I love how the ink seeps into the cracks!



I stamped a sheet of Vanilla cardstock with the Weave Backgrounder (Cornish Heritage Farms)in Close to Cocoa ink, and then sponged the edges. The Scripture is from Scripture Essentials I (Cornish Heritage Farms) and I used PaperTrey Ink's Dark Chocolate ink so it would stand out from the Weave background. This card is finished off with a bit of Turquoise ribbon and some brown Dew Drops.

Why don't you see what you can create with these colors? If you upload to SCS or to PCP, please use keyword CBCC27. For more inspiration, please check out with the rest of the Challenge Chicks have created:

Courtney Fowler
Maria Fiscella
Danielle Marcus
Sparkle Smith
Maria Gurnsey
Kim Gruetzmacher
Risa Malieta West


Stamps - all from Cornish Heritage Farms - Weave backgrounder, Scripture Essentials I, Foxglove Cottage Vignette
Ink: Close to Cocoa, PTI Dark Chocolate, Ranger Distress Embossing Ink (Rubbernecker)
CS: Close to Cocoa, Turquoise, Vanilla
Other: Ranger UTEE (Rubbernecker), sponge, turquoise ribbon, brown Dew Drops, heat gun

Multicolored Kinkade

This card is for the Cornish Heritage Farm's TK Blitz Multiple Inks Challenge. For this challenge, you are to use two or more colors of inks on your Thomas Kinkade image. A spectrum pad works great for this challenge. I used an old Adirondack pad called Stained Glass. I ran my brayer over the ink pad and then ran it back and forth over the stamp.

The scripture comes from CHF's Scripture Essentials I set. I tried all kinds of embellishments on this card, but they just didn't look or feel right. So, another plain and simple card for your eye candy today. :-) This will be a great card to pop in the mail to someone who may be having a hard day.

Kinkade in Blue

I created this card for the TK Blitz going on at Cornish Heritage Farms. The challenge was to make a monochromatic card - ink up a Thomas Kinkade image with just one color. That is the best and easiest way to play with the Kinkade stamps. :-)

I inked up Hometown Pride with Versafine Blue ink and stamped it onto Prism Smooth White cardstock. After it dried, I cut it out with nestabilities and layered it onto a Brilliant Blue cardstock. The sentiment is from CHF's Scripture Essentials I. I paired that with a Brilliant Blue button that was threaded with the same blue gingham ribbon.

I tried several different backgrounds and designer papers with this, and they just overwhelmed the TK image. Since I wanted that and the Scripture to be the focal point, I left the card base a simple white. :-)

For this and the next few posts, I am scheduling them ahead of time. My hubby is having surgery and I'm not sure how much time I will have on the computer. Hopefully my posts will show up each day so you have some eye candy to look at. Enjoy!

Truly Scrumptious blog - sketch challenge #1

Have you seen the new Truly Scrumptious blog? They have a fabulous sketch challenge up right now, and I just had to try it out. My dear friend Danita is on the design team - whoo hoo!!!!

For my card, I did it a little bit differently. Since the sentiment IS the main image, I couldn't think of what to put over on the right side. I thought some swirls might take the place of that little sentiment area, so I cut some out with the little sizzlet die cut from Stampin Up called Swirls Scribbles.

I punched out the pink butterfly with a Martha Stewart punch, bent it on both sides of the body, and then covered each wing with Star Dust Stickles. While waiting for that to dry, I put the rest of the card together. The background papers are from Basic Grey's Perhaps collection, and the sentiment comes from Impression Obsession. I finished this off with some pearl dew drops and Rose grosgrain ribbon (Stampin Up).

This was a great sketch from Truly Scrumptious! I can't wait to see what else they have in store for us! :-)

Stamps: Impression Obsession
Ink: Artichoke
CS: Regal Rose, White, Artichoke, Basic Grey Perhaps dsp
Other: Swirls Scribbles sizzlet(SU), Rose grosgrain ribbon (SU), pearl dew drops, butterfly punch, Star Dust stickles, nestabilities

Belli Challenge #55 - inchies

This week's Belli Challenge is to use inchies. Inchies are basically just one square inches of images - on white cardstock, chipboard, designer paper, etc...... You can learn a lot more about these from Ellen Hutson's Inchie blog.

I found Ellen's white chipboard inchies at my LSS and immediately had to figure out a way to use these cute little things. Cornish Heritage Farms has a set of stamps made especially for stamping on inchies called Inchie Style. I used four different images from this set to make my 4 inchie cards here. These cards measure 3x3 inches each, and these will be sweet little cards to give away as a little thank you or thinking of you tucked inside a little gift. :-)

Wanna see what the other Belli Girls created?

Shannon Bracken - GUEST DESIGNER this week :-)
Shelly Koskinen
Chris Dickinson
Christi Thorsen
Ceal Pritchett
Courtney Fowler
Danita Hollander
Joan Ervin
Karen Gibson
Lee Murphy
Anne Harada
Joanne Travis

Why don't you try making an inchie today? If you upload to SCS or PCP, please use keyword CBC55.

CBCC #26 - Bubble Wrap

When Courtney told us to use bubble wrap for this week's challenge, I thought, "bubble wrap?" What do you do with THAT? I inked it up and stamped it on cardstock, and thought it looked a bit like a honeycomb. So why not make a bee card?

For this card I used cocoa ink on the bubble wrap and stamped it on Summer Sun cardstock. I had originally tried Chocolate Chip ink, and it was just too dark and icky. The cocoa ink is less harsh.

The bees on here are from a Christmas gift from my mom. She gave me Bee-Mail made by Renaissance by Design. It is a super cute stamp set! I love it - thanks, Mom!

We have a new Challenge Chick joining us. Welcome Risa Malieta West to our group! Check out all the Chicks' blogs to see what they have created with bubble wrap this week:

Courtney Fowler
Maria Fiscella
Danielle Marcus
Sparkle Smith
Maria Gurnsey
Kim Gruetzmacher
Risa Malieta West


Stamps: Bee-Mail (Renaissance by Design)
Ink: Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, Mememto Rich Cocoa
CS: Chocolate Chip, Summer Sun, Red Riding Hood, White, Chocolate Chip dsp
Other: Red Riding Hood striped ribbon, prima flowers, buttons, yellow copic marker, clear Spica glitter pen

MOJO #73

After a long day of planting veggies in that COLD wind today, I had just enough energy to make a really simple card. I did a very loose interpretation of the Mojo Sketch #73 here. I punched a hole through the ribbon with the Crop a Dile, and set the large eyelet right through the ribbon and cardstock. That's why the ribbon is sort of pulled in around the eyelet. :-)

Stamps: Impression Obsession
Ink: Burgundy
CS: Burgundy, Kraft, Kraft dsp, Artichoke dsp
Other: nestabilities, burgundy wide ribbon, antique brass jumbo eyelet and brads

Valentine Chipboard Projects

This is what I've been working on for the past week. It was just something fun to do - no particular reason except just to enjoy it. These are some large white chipboard pieces (about 8x8 inches) that I painted and decorated over several days. I might have to mail these to some friends of mine and they could hang them up in their craft rooms. Wouldn't that be fun? Hopefully they like pink! LOL

I hope you are enjoying your weekend!

Belli Challenge #54 - doilies

This week's Belli Challenge is to use a doily on your creation. My dear friend Danita sent me this adorable red heart doily, so I just had to use it for this challenge. Thank you, Danita!!!

I could not find a sentiment that would fit just perfectly inside the pink heart, so I just wrote it on there with a Cocoa marker. Who says you have to stamp everything? :-) I cut out the pink heart from the little Hearts Set sizzlits dies available from Stampin Up. The smaller red hearts were punched out with the new Stampin Up Heart to Heart punch, and then arranged and glued down. The designer papers are from the new Stampin Up Candy Lane dsp, and I love the colors! I finished this off with a strip of Red Riding Hood striped ribbon behind the doily. Everything on this card is from Stampin Up except for the doily, and it is amazing how much that doily matches the colors here. Color me happy! :-)

We have some exciting Belli news today. It's my pleasure to announce that we have two new Belli Girls joining us! Welcome Anne and Joanne to the Belli fun!

Don't forget to see what our Guest Designer has created today! Go check out Jessica's blog HERE.

Here's what the other Belli Girls have created for you, so be sure to leave them some love:

Shelly Koskinen
Chris Dickinson
Ceal Pritchett
Courtney Fowler
Danita Hollander
Joan Ervin
Karen Gibson
Lee Murphy
Anne Harada
Joanne Travis

If you find a doily hiding in your craft room, pull it out and create something with it. If you upload your creation to SCS or PCP, please use keyword CBC54 so we can all go look at it. :-) Have a great day!

CBCC #25 - Inspiration

For this week's CBCC Challenge, Courtney showed us all the following picture:



We are to find inspiration from this picture and create our own project from this. Well........ I'll be honest. I had a really hard time with this picture. I tried to find inspiration in the colors and the dots/lines around the heart. Therefore, my card is shimmery pink and gold, and I thought this background was sort of like the circuit board.



Yeah, it's not exactly what I wanted it to look like when I was done. Oh well..... I tried......... :-)

Courtney has some exciting news! She's looking for Guest Chicks to join our fun! If you are interested, please visit her blog and leave her a comment with the link to your own blog.

Our Challenge Chicks have created their own artwork from this inspiration piece, so go check them out and leave them some love:

Courtney Fowler
Maria Fiscella
Danielle Marcus
Sparkle Smith
Maria Gurnsey
Kim Gruetzmacher

Sadly, Chris, Lorie, and Sarah have resigned from the Chicks. I wish them all luck in their future endeavors! :-)

Two more Bellies

When I schedule my posts for Tuesday nights, sometimes there some last minute changes. Here, I have two more Belli Girls for you to look at for more inspiration:

Debby McGillivray has a sweet Valentine card for you to see. Go check it out and leave some love!

This week's Guest Designer is Jessica, and you have to check out her sweet Belli card HERE.

Enjoy the eye candy and have a great day!

Belli Challenge #53 - Valentines

Today's Belli Challenge is all about hearts and Valentines. For this card, I used a sketch challenge that was issued for the Sweet N Sassy Stamps group. Remember the red and pink Bittersweet paper I used on the card last week? I used a scrap that was left over from that card to make the one you see here. It worked out great! Remember - check your scraps to see if you can use those up first before cutting into new sheets of paper.

I was having so much fun with this card, and I remembered the sticky heart shapes that I bought from Stampin Up last year. I covered one side with some Martha Stewart pink glitter, and then removed the liner on the other side and stuck it down on the card. Gotta love that glitter!!

Check out what the other Belli Girls have created and leave them some love:

Shelly Koskinen
Jennifer Greco
Chris Dickinson
Christi Thorsen
Ceal Pritchett
Lorie Ames
Courtney Fowler
Danita Hollander
Joan Ervin
Karen Gibson
Lee Murphy - Welcome Lee aboard as a full time Belli Girl! Whoo hoo!!

Play along with us and create a Valentine card this week. If you upload your artwork to SCS or PCP, please use keyword CBC53.

CBCC #24 - Masculine Valentine

This week's CBCC Challenge is to make a masculine Valentine. Do you know how hard that is???? :-)

I saw this sketch on the OCCC blog, and thought I could try that out. I used "manly" colors from the Basic Grey Archaic collection, and set it off with Dark Chocolate cardstock, ink, and ribbon from PaperTrey Ink.

The large sentiment comes from Chrissy's Love Blooms (SNSS), and it is just the perfect sentiment for giving to your hubby. The "Be Mine" is from a dollar stamp I picked up at Michaels several years ago.


Check out what the other Challenge Chicks have created for you:

Courtney Fowler
Chris Dickinson
Maria Fiscella
Lorie Ames
Danielle Marcus
Sarah Anderson
Sparkle Smith
Maria Gurnsey
Kim Gruemacher

Join along with us and share your masculine Valentine card. If you upload to SCS or PCP, please use keyword CBCC24.


Stamps: Love Blooms from SNSS, $1 stamp from Michaels
Ink: Dark Chocolate (PTI), Walnut Stain distress ink
CS: Dark Chocolate (PTI)
Paper: Archaic from Basic Grey
Other: dewdrops (Men's), Dark Chocolate twill ribbon (PTI), nestabilities, sponge