Tiny hearts

Have you ever had something just come together so perfectly? That is how I felt about this card.

Marisa's inspiration photo for challenge #225 at Just Us Girls was a bit daunting. There was just so much to look at. I couldn't pick anyone panel to work from, I liked them all.

Soooooo, taking a cue from a class Jennifer Maguire had called Inspiration Showcase, each heart was inspired from each panel on the photo. 

I had such fun creating each individual heart and am thinking about making a canvas of hearts based on this photo and card.

I can't wait to see how all of you interpret this weeks challenge!! Please join us at Just Us Girls!!

Thanks Marisa for challenging me this week!!

Back in the House- House of Cards that is!

Welcome back to the great challenges at House of Cards- the FIRST challenge blog to incorporate various stamping styles in their challenges. We are welcoming back some of the original team such as me :) and a big welcome to the new designers that have joined us.

HOC has gone to a biweekly format with each challenge featuring two styles for you to use. For our first challenge of the year we are wetting your creative juices with a sketch.

Clean and simple can sometimes be difficult when you are working from a sketch, so I might have taken a liberty hear with mine. I think it is important when participating in a challenge to try and stay within the parameters of the challenge- sketch, color, etc. That is why it is a challenge. OK just my two cents- feel free to tell me to get lost. :)

This card is for all the great friends I have met through the various challenge teams I am on and have participated in.

Please join us over at HOC and join us in the sketch challenge featuring CAS or classic and elegant styles!

My Blue Valentine

This week at Just Us Girls, Vicki is hosting a great color challenge. I am no stranger to these awesome colors! I love teals, blues and browns together.

Since I am all about making Valentine cards, I went with a blue Valentine idea- well maybe an aqua-teal Valentine!

I loved the card and I needed a quick and simple card for my Valentine card class with the seniors at New Horizons. I am not sure they would go for the teal, brown combo so here is the same card in more traditional colors.

Here is the second card the seniors will be making. I used this card as my inspiration. 

Soooo then I got to thinkin' I can remake this card with the challenge colors!

I actually like it better with the challenge colors! What a great guy Valentine!!

I cannot wait to see what all of you come up with this week at Just Us Girls!

Love is in the air

The Christmas stamps have been put away and the Valentine stamps have been taken out. It is a sign that time is moving on. 

Try Stampin' on Tuesday is featuring yet another great sketch to challenge us. The twist is plaid- which I didn't even notice that till this card was done and posted on the TSOT blog. Oh well- the twist is optional. 

I made the main panel first and originally was going to place it on white card stock, but it just didn't look right. it looked ever so much better on the kraft paper. the sweet little mouse was from an old StampinUp set. 

This will be my last challenge at TSOT for a few months. Life and school is really putting a cramp in my creative time. I hope to be back by the summer, when I will have graduated with my BSN.

Please continue to check out the great challenges at TSOT and I will see you all before you know it!

Life stinks unless.....

Life was a bit stinky this week. It was bone chillingly cold here in Pennsylvania. I know I shouldn't complain so many others had it so much worse. But it was bad for us. I also had to get back to reality and start studying again after a 5 week hiatus. I am putting in a grueling school schedule in the next 4 months so I can have my BSN by then end of April instead of the middle of June.

Wish me luck to try and get everything done! Oh yeah, keep me in your thoughts to pass my Psychology CLEP test!! Any study tips would be greatly appreciated!

This week at Just Us Girls, Sharyn is hosting a technique challenge. Yippee!!! It was one I love paper piecing. It might be an older technique but it never gets old with this gal. The question was which stamp to use!! 

I grabbed this set from Simon say Stamp that really hadn't seen any ink since I bought it. I paper pieced with pink gingham paper from Memory Box. I found a scrap of white felt paper and paper pieced the tummy and tale with that. Remember those "Pat the Bunny" books you all read your kids? Think that. Ooooooo, nice and soft!

The best part of this card is the inside though.

I had to pull out a shadow stamp to create the reverse image. It has been  a very long time since I did that little trick and I had a few for the trash. The saying I had wrote. I can't wait to give this to Mr. George for Valentine's day! 

Another little trick I like to use to mimic paper piecing can be seen on the heart. I die cut an image and carefully outline it with a black marker so it looks like it was stamped and cut out.

I can't wait to see what all of you create this week at Just Us Girls!

In a word....

I am keeping with my resolution to participate in challenges other then my design team challenges. CAS-ual Friday always have totally inspiring challenges. This challenge "in a word" asks us to create a card. In their words:

Instead of a resolution, choose a word that describes what you hope for the new year.

maybe it's LOVE if you want to work on your relationships, or DO if you want to challenge yourself to something, or LAUGH if you want to lighten up, etc.

Originally I chose "relax" but "let it go" also resonated and they went together for me. This year I need to take more time to relax. I work FT and am in school FT and have hubby to care for. Thus the need to relax. I also need to "let it go".  I need to let others help me. I am nurse and it is hard to let others do for us. I also tend to be a grudge holder and I need to let go of any bad feelings I tend to harbor. 

This is all something my holistic nursing instructor tried to drill into us. We need to take care of ourselves so we can take care of others!

Soooo..... I need to RELAX AND LET IT GO.

I made  two cards but the husband felt the first invoked the feeling of relaxing and letting go. The second is more stylized feeling of relaxing and letting go.

Resolutions

I read on someone's blog that their NewYear's resolution was to try to join challenges other then the ones they design for. That really struck a chord with me. I realized I hadn't joined any challenges other then my own for several months.  Sooooo, I decided to try and be more active in other challenges myself.

One-Layer Wednesday has had a make over and they are now known as One-Layer Simplicity, a monthly one layer card challenge. The  challenge this month is "restocking our shelves", whether it is birthday cards, all occasion, thank you. They want us to create a set of one layer cards to restock our stash.

I picked up this Hero Arts stamp on sale at Michaels. I can't even find this stamp on the net except at E-bay, so it probably is no longer available. I remember seeing a card where the image came down from the top. I stamped at the top of my card and using copic markers I created an ombre effect. Is ombre still hot? Some times I am just so behind the trends!

Here are the cards individually with the copic colors I used.

Y23, YR12, YR15

B00, B02, B14

R30, R32, R35

YG 01, YG03, YG05

I hope you find the time to participate at the new and improved One-Layer Simplicity Challenge.

I am entering this at Simply Create Too where this challenge- "anything goes!". 

Happy Creating!

Some Birdie...

Happy New Year to all my friends at Just Us Girls! I hope you are putting 2013  behind you and getting ready for everything 2014 will be bringing you!

We have an awesome sketch for the first challenge of the new year, courtesy of Nancy.

I gotta say I was a bit sad to put the Christmas stamps away, but it had to happen and Valentine's day is right around the corner. 

I went for  a taste of spring in the middle of winter here in Pennsylvania with the sketch. The first card I made just didn't sit well with me- to pale and dull- see below card. I had lunch and went back and recreated it and was much happier.

This is a pale imitation of the card I remade for the challenge.

Please join us with our first challenge of 2014!

2013 in Review

Happy New Year Everyone!!  It is such a cliche to say that the past year flew by, but it did. I have enjoyed my new job that I started last January, school is almost done- June graduation here we come and grad school to start next September. I joined several design teams and enjoy the creative challenges they throw at me- House of Cards, Try Stampin' on Tuesday and Just Us Girls. Late in 2013, I rejoined the Memory Box team and am trying to spread the gospel of stamping! 

Here is my annual review of my favorite cards I have blogged about during 2013. 

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October #1

October #2

November

 December

Over at Just Add Ink they are looking for your best creation of the year. Since I couldn't add all 12 months I had to pick one. Head on over to see which month I picked.

Wishing all of you the best year ever and thank you for checking in and often commenting on my blog postings.