Hip hip hooray!

Happy Monday folks. My vacation is over and I am actually glad to be going back to be going back to work. My vacation turned out to be rather stressful.

I did get some crafting done and enjoyed playing with a new stamp set from Newton's Nook called "Birthday Roundabout".  I made this card for the new sketch challenge at Inky Paws.

The new slimline cards are all the rage these days. I do not have slimline anything so I took the sketch and fit it to my standard A2 size card. For those who are interested in the slim lines check out these dies at Newton's Nook. Slimline Frames and Windows die sets and Slimline frames and porthole die sets.

I hope you join us for this on point sketch challenge at Inky Paws! You have two weeks to play along at Inky Paws!  We will chose a RANDOM entry to win a $20.00 Newton's Nook store gift certificate. Our favorite entries from each challenge will be highlighted the following Monday, so all entries have a chance to be featured on the blog.

The deadline to enter today's challenge is this Friday August 14, 2020 at MN CST. The winners will be announced on the following Monday at Inky Paws.

Happy Heart Day!

Happy heart day everyone!! I have a last Valentine to share with all of you. This one is very special and I know George is gonna flip over it. It features the quintessential teddy bear on it. This is an oldie but goodie, wood- yes wood stamp from Penny Black. The stamp dates back to 2006!!!

I am submitting this card to a few challenges.

The Male Room

CASology

And Shopping Our Stash featuring "my heart on fire". Not there is anything really firey about my card except my love for my guy and his love of teddies.

 Hope you have all your love created and spread around. I heading off to share my love with George!!

Love you so much

I finally finished all of my Valentine cards. This card for George made me so happy. the little kitty is the spitting image of our dear old girl Pinkie. This card will be from her.

I am entering this card in two challenges:

The Male Room

Inkspirational

Each site are featuring "love" cards.

I hope my cards inspire you to get started on your Valentine cards.

Here's to the red, white, and blue!

Despite it being about 102 degrees in my studio, I have been getting in some quality crafting time. I was checking some of the various challenges out there and decided to play along with CAS(E) this Sketch. 

They always have very clean and simple designs that I gravitate towards. As soon I saw this week's sketch, I knew what I was going to create. After all it is the birth of our Nation this week. 

I used a very old set from Lawn Fawn called "Happy 4th". Unfortunately it is sold out and retired. There are not many patriotic stamps out there, so this one gets a work out every year. 

Head over to CAS(E) this Sketch and see what the DT came up with and play along!

Last hurrah.....

 Just sending a creative reminder about the awesome challenge over at Inky Paws. The theme is summer/ beach.

Todays card was soooo much fun to make, maybe not the most original but I love it!1 I created the waves with the seaborders die set, the sun (a reoccurring theme  for all my cards the summer!) was from the sunscape stencil and of course Newton relaxing in the waves is from the Newton's summer vacation. The contrasting colors of the aqua blue water and orangey, red, yellow sun just is so striking.

For those who follow me on Instagram (user name stampinsue) You know I spent the last weekend in the Poconos. One of my buddies has a house on the lake (think this stamp set and you arent far off!) and every August I head to the Nos for a stamping weekend with my best peeps. Its always a blast.

Here is the view from the porch:

We spend the weekend crafting with a long walk around the lake or up the mountain each day. It is so much fun to craft with others- you feed off of their creative energy.

The empty chair is where I sit. I get the whole long side of the table since I cannot stay in my own space. 

While I was there I worked ahead on some up coming challenges for Inky Paws.  Sneak Peek!!

There is still time to get your paws inky and to play along with this fun challenge at Inky Paws!

We will chose a RANDOM entry to win a $20.00 store credit to our Newton's Nook online shop! We will also highlight our favorites from each challenge the following Monday so all entries have a chance to be featured on the blog! 
 


 Deadline to enter  this fun challenge is Friday, August 17, 2018 at Midnight CST. The winners will be announced on the NND blog the following Monday. 

Easter Chicks

If you read yesterday's post, you know I was off to create my fun Easter card for all my fav peeps. As usual I purchased a few new Easter stamps for my cards this year, but again as usual I end up using a stamp that is afew years old! This Rubbernecker stamp is at least 4 years old and has never been used until this year! I suppose the stamp I bought this year will be used in a few years!!! LOL!!! Do any of you do that? I heard Sandy Allnock say she did the same thing. Is it something pecular to us stampers?

I thought it would be fun to see the chicks hatching from the eggs with the same color as the eggs. The saying is from a new Newton's Nook set and it was perfect for this card. I love it when cards  come together this easy.

I am entering this in two challenges. Shopping our Stash"s theme is "Here comes Peter Rabbit". All things Easter. Clean and Simple on Friday are asking for Easter cards.

Sadly,  no more time to play, I have a presentation for school to practice and a paper to start on.

I wish all of you a blessed Palm Sunday and rejoiceful Easter.

Hippo hippo hipporay!

How exciting to get my mojo back and to be blogging. Crafters- when you feel your mojo or when lack inspiration, my advice to you is to check out a challenge.  I was checking out various challenges and saw two that inspired me.

AAA Cards is one of my "go-to-challenge" sites. The challenge is bright and beautiful. I think my card is bright, I don't know if it is "beautiful", but it is fun and whimsical. Can you see what mistake I made on this card? I will let you think about it and tell you at the end of my post. AAA Cards are having a DT call. I had stepped down from all my previous DT commitments due to school, but things have settled down, so I am ready to be part of a challenge team. So, I am throwing my hat into the ring at AAA Cards.

Another challenge that I love is CAS-usual Fridays. I have been lucky enough to win this one a few times. They are celebrating their 6th birthday!!! To celebrate the challenge is to use 6 of any item. I know you are looking at my card and are thinking 6 of anything- where is that? Well I used 6 stamps from one item- one set- the "Wish Big" set from Essentials by Ellen.

Remember if you need and inspiration check out these great challenges. Wish me luck with the DT call at AAA cards.

OK- if you couldn't figure out what was wrong with my card, the banner embossing folder is upside down!!😄

Cool Chick

Gosh- I know it has been awhile since I have blogged, but I didn't think I would forget how to use blogger! I had the worst time trying to upload my photos from iphoto. Anyone having problems with that?

Anyway, I figured out a workaround. Grad school has been incredibly stressful and time consuming. This past week was the first time I have had to really sit down and stamp.

Today's card fits the bill for a few challenges. These were supposed to be Easter cards, but since I didn't get to stamp until after Easter, they are spring cards!! 😀 

I used this super cute stamp set from Simon Says Stamp- Some Bunny. The background was done using this fun stencil from Timmy and a rainbow of distress inks. 

This card just makes me splashing in puddles, dancing in moonlight, spinning under the sun kinda happy!

I am entering it in a few challenges:

AAA- stencils

Addicted to CAS- rainbows

CAS on Sunday- stencil

Use a Stencil

I have a few weeks off until I am back at school, so hopefully you may see me again soon. Until then check out these great challenges!

Winter wonderland

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a great holiday so far. I had a fabulous one. This was the first year I was ahead of the game. The tree was up and decorated, my cards were done and mailed and gifts made 2 weeks before Christmas!! Unheard of!!

So with Christmas 2016 under my belt, I decided to get back to blogging a bit. This card was a last minute card that I made with a Tim Holtz die that I forgot I had. I decided to use the negative for this simple but elegant holiday card. I only sent this card to one person and will be using this idea for my cards next year.

I entering this into my alma mater  Happy Little Stampers, the "anything goes with dies" challenge.

 Another fav challenge site, Shopping our Stash is looking for "winter themed, but not not Christmas related" Do you think the star on the tree will disqualify me?!!?

Donna from Cards in Envy asked me to post my card for their "celebrate the  season" challenge. How could I resist?!!?😀

I am hoping to spend the next few days doing some serious stamping before school starts back up.

Check back in soon,

Bootastic

I am so happy my mojo is back. You can't get me out of my studio! Today's card was inspired by two challenges. Addicted to CAS has "monster" of a theme and Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers (a new challenge for me) ask us to watercolor!

 

My watercolor panel was created with Ken Oliver's colorbursts.  The purple is the best purple in watercolors I have ever seen! I created several of these cards using this stamp set from Mama Elephant. The grave yard background was from this Newton's Nook stamp set.

Of all the "weeners" in the "Bootastic" stamp set, the mummy monster is my fav. 

I have been trying to stamp the inside of my cards as I make them. I usually leave them blank and then I am at the eleventh hour quickly stamping a sentiment on the inside.

I took the time and stamp a fun "inside"

So beware, it's mischief night tonight! Just stay in and stamp!