Unity Kit of the Month Sketch Challenge - September

I absolutely love to get detailed with stamping . . . not just to stamp, but to cut, color and embellish where I can.  Sometimes I love the end result, and sometimes . . . well, not so much. 

My September Kit of the Month had not arrived yet, so I decided to find some stamps from the August set to use on the sketch.

The sketch . . .

 The August kit had those cute little soda bottles that were just calling to me.  Where I grew up, we called it pop.  But here in New England, it is soda.  I started with the image on white, intending to maybe use a circle punch to get the circle design in the sketch.  But suddenly, I was off on a tangent with scissors and markers to make something more.  And I absolutely LOVE the end result (which you can't see in the first photo, but you can totally see in the second one below).  

 I used some crystal lacquer to get the bottle effect below, but I also made bottle labels for the cola and the grape soda.  These little bottles are so stinking cute!

Here's to successful creativity!

What's Shakin'

So what's shakin'?  Not much crafty stuff going on.  Life is a little busy.  The Monday to Friday job in the insurance world has me hopping . . . the weekend job at my local home away from home (New England Scrapbook Co.) keeps me busy.  The combination of the two makes me too tired to be creative (sometimes).  But . . . I better get my craftiness going because I'm less than two weeks from my vacation . . . a weekend crop in Myrtle Beach with friends followed by a few days of R & R with my husband.  That's pretty much all that is shakin', but I suppose that's a lot.  

When I saw this little stamp set from Unity, I just had to get it.  I kept thinking . . . what the heck will I do with a salt and pepper shaker.  But they are so darn cute, it is the perfect little card.  I used a card from the Doodlebug Card Tower along with pattern paper from Simple Stories 100 Days of Summer (beautiful collection of paper and stickers which was available at NESC).  The red and cream checked makes me think of a picnic tablecloth, and the reverse side is the floral print that I used as my "ribbon accent."  Paper as a ribbon accent . . . absolutely.  I cut a half-inch strip, broke the fibers down using my ruler (a bone folder would have worked better, but I couldn't find mine).  Run adhesive on the back side and just glue a little, fold a little, glue a little fold a little, etc.  Trim when you get to the end and ta da!  A paper ribbon accent! 

I stamped the salt and pepper shakers onto a very light cream cardstock, and then the lids on a shiny silver pattern paper that I had on hand.  I cut the shakers and lids out, glued the lids to the top of the shakers, and then popped them onto the card.  I used black and diamond stickles for the salt and pepper.  I then covered them with a coating of Glossy Accents to give that glass look to the shakers. 


Super easy and fun!

The Play Date Cafe Challenge #99

My weekly expedition into color continues with The Play Date Challenge #99.

These colors are simply gorgeous.  Lilacs and lemonade!  That was the first thing that came to mind for me.  I thought I did a great job of matching up my colors until I looked at this photo.  Somehow things look a little blue.  Amazing what the right lighting can do for you!

I used a Magenta stamp with black Memento Ink, and then used my Twinkling H20's to add color to my stamped image. 

 

 If you've not tried the H20's . . . I highly recommend.  They are super fun to work with, and very "twinkly".  See the close up shot below. 

Until next week . . .

Happy Scrapping, Stamping, Papercrafting!

Never Ending Halloween Card

I am in love with this super cool never ending card idea and have so far made two designs, both Halloween.  It is just super cool and fun.  Check out the video of one that I made using Stampin' Up's Frightful Sight DS paper and some of their latest stamps.  I used three sets to design this card . . . Out on the Limb, Gift Givers and Wicked Cool.

I've got some thoughts in the works to do a few birthday designs as well!  Get ready.

The Play Date Cafe Challenge #98

I can't seem to tear myself away from The Play Date Cafe Challenge . . . and here I am again this week. 

Their inspirational photo this week . . .

And my design, which was inspired by a sketch I saw recently . . .

This is Stampin' Up paper, stamp, ink and brad.  I pulled in all the colors from the paper on the stamp design as well. 

Looking forward to next week's challenge!  Love The Play Date Cafe! 

The Play Date Cafe Challenge #97

Another Play Date Cafe Challenge! 

I love this weekly challenge, and I think it's about the beauty they bring to colors.  The photo that they post for inspiration is always so inviting.  This week's challenge was really awesome, because it included one of my favorite color combinations . . . black and white with a splash of red.  

So the idea behind the color splash was to create something in black and add just a splash of color . . . and they specifically said RED! 

So here is my design . . .

The cardstock, paper and flower were from my LSS, New England Scrapbook Company . . . and let me just say, the flowers are blooming at NESC this week, as they have a great collection of new flowers in the house!  AWESOME! 

I used my Stamping Up Top Note die (cut in half and trimmed on the sides) to create the illusion of a flap.  I also mixed two stamp sets . . . the birds and sentiment were from Close to My Heart.  The border at the bottom where my splash of red appears is from Unity Stamp.  My stamped images were embossed using white ink and an opague embossing powder.

Loving this challenge!