Elegant Monogram

A simple yet elegant chipboard monogram made with the wedding colors chosen by an AMAZING bride. 

Chris & Pia, all the best to you both!!

BIG Love

Fancy a little white dress? Or cream perhaps?? That's what came to mind when I was making this card. Not to mention I have a case of "weddings on the brain"...with the one I missed last weekend as well as one I'm in this Sunday! And speaking of weddings, I'm pretty sure the piece of cream ribbon I used was actually from one of our wedding gifts (it'll be 7 years in May), so to say this card was made with Love is an understatement. It was made with blood too...well not really but I did manage to poke my finger a few times as I was stitching up the ribbon. Ouch!

I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE how this card turned out, especially when I found the PERFECT sentiment to go smack dab in the middle. I started off with this weeks Paper Players Sketch Challenge #20, as you can see I flipped the sketch a bit...I did have the embossed piece of card stock running horizontal BUT couldn't see any of the cool detail, so I placed it vertically on my card.

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I then paired the sketch with the rich colors from the JUGS color challenge, Black, Cream (Very Vanilla) & Kraft (otherwise known as Crumb Cake)

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Aren't these colors yummy together?? Makes me want to run out and change my bedroom to black & cream! I started off making the card the typical size by cutting a sheet of 8-1/2 by 11" card stock in 1/2 but once I had attached my rather large scrunched up ribbon, well, the base of the card kind of got swallowed up, so I went for a 6X6" instead. I used a SU! embossing folder for the background and then just dabbed black ink over the top to really bring out the depth in the paper. I was having a hard time finding a sentiment "pretty enough" to live up to the rest of the card and pulled out the LOVE from Love You Much. I used a piece of tape to cover the itty bitty words, you much, on the stamp while inking it into Craft Basic Black Ink, then pulled off the tape, stamped my image and viola, just a great big LOVE! After adding some black embossing powder and heating it to a shine, I couldn't resist adding just a tiny touch of bling on my flower. And there ya have it, in a nutshell, or rather, a LOVE shell!!

Happy Stamping!

ABC's Holiday Promo

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~ Offer available on all order types (online, customer & workshops). Additional products from current catalogs may be purchased on the same order.

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~ Deadlines: December 16th (by phone, 6:50 pm)(online, 11:50 pm) (MT)

 CONTACT ME TODAY TO GET STARTED CREATING YOUR PERFECT HANDMADE HOLIDAY. 

"Fall" In Love

This weeks Play Date Cafe' photo inspiration reminded me of a crisp fall, Tahoe day, where the air is fresh and the leaves are crunchy beneath the boots that you slipped on to keep your toes warm during your morning walk in the woods...and what comes after the crispness, well none other than the clean beauty of snow and ice! I pulled out my color coach and matched Baja Breeze, Certainly Celery & River Rock to the photo and then I sat...literally...and started creating in my mind. I know everyone has their own way of putting things together, some sketch, others pull out a variety of items that might work and of course there are also those that just start stamping. Me, well, I always start cutting (and hope for the best!).

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I started off by using a snowflake embossing folder directly on the front of my Baja Breeze, sponged a wee bit of RETIRED Frost White shimmer paint over the entire front and then got the snazzy idea to somehow create a window with a stamped image behind it. Using the 2-3/8" Scallop Circle Punch, my idea started coming to life (or rather to paper, hehe). I heat embossed Gold embossing powder onto my skating couple from Winter Post, which pairs very nicely with the River Rock, if I do say so myself. I wanted to create more of a matted look so instead of doing it with paper, I did it with shadows, by popping back my image on the inside of the card. After punching out an oval from my scrap of scallop circle, I layered a smaller oval in River Rock with a saying from RETIRED Sale-A-Brations Vintage Labels. A bit of Certainly Celery Ribbon and RETIRED gold cord and viola, simple, sweet & starting to get in the mood!! (for Christmas that is!)

Happy Stamping!!

Mojo Wedding

Today a beautiful bride is getting married in the corn fields of Iowa. (Well, not REALLY in the corn fields but in a beautiful park) I made Kathryn's wedding invitations to coordinate with her peacock theme and after glittering up the feathers of 200 peacocks and 370 feathers, I didn't think I'd be touching another peacock stamp for quite some time. Don't get me wrong, I'm a total fan of peacocks and their beautiful coloring, I was just a little over-done (so to speak) with feathers, peacocks and blue glitter (which is on my face as I'm typing this).

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This weeks Mojo Monday was the perfect sketch to compliment the RETIRED peacock from Very Thankful. I took the brides color scheme of Chocolate Chip, Brilliant Blue, Taken With Teal & Very Vanilla. This fancy looking squished up ribbon has recently caught my eye and after watching a wonderful tutorial on Ann Schach's blog, I just had to give it a go! I heat embossed the peacock with clear embossing powder after stamping in Craft Chocolate Chip. The little flowers are the ONLY thing that isn't SU! on this card BUT they were the perfect shade of blue and we all know what every bride needs on her wedding day, something BLUE!!

Wish you both the best on your special day and always, Kathryn & Chris! 

Black, White & Red All Over

I feel like I've been playing catch up since I was out of the loop the last week or so but no, just got the kids to bed a little earlier than normal last night and was able to have some very sweet quiet Mommy time, sigh! I have so much DVR to catch up on but my craft room was calling my name, so up I went to my quiet little haven instead! Thank goodness for all of these wonderful online challenges, cause they really help give me something to focus on, so that I'm not just sitting in lala land twiddling my thumbs waiting for inspiration to pop out of my tired brain. (although that's not a bad thing either) I'll take it anyway I can!

I started off with this weeks Sweet Sunday Sketch

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and then paired it with a color challenge, cause every card HAS to have color, right?! Taken from The Paper Players inspirational photo.

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Using Whisper White as my base, I then added a layer of Basic Black with just a hint of Real Red along the side with the scallop border punch. Using a onesie stamp, I made a background for my "It's A Boy" phrase to sit on. I stamped the BOY in Real Red and then Versa Marked over the top with Clear Embossing Powder. I also finally broke into my new SU! glitter brads (and of course used all the RED ones) since I ended up making 3 of these cards at once.

Big Huge Hugs

There's nothing nicer than opening the mail box to find a hand addressed envelope for YOU and as you grin sloppily while pouring over your hand made card, you also get a BIG HUGE HUUUUUUG!!! (did you feel that?)

Today I started out with the color scheme from ColourQ. Typical horrible Halloween colors that don't go well together any other time of the year but somehow just DO during the holidays. Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Concord Crush & White.

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and I paired these colors with one of the sketches over at Hand Stamped Sentiments. 

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I used Pumpkin Pie as my base, stamped and colored in my cute little lady, while paper piecing her pants to match the RETIRED Old Olive background. Then on to the sentiment, which was inked up in Craft White and heat embossed with White Embossing Powder and finally a piece of 1/8" Basic Black Taffeta Ribbon to finish up the sketch. I'm not quite sure if I can get away with this actually qualifying for a fall or Halloween theme (maybe if I switched my flowers to pumpkins) BUT the colors sure are!

Not So Normal Cycle

My dearly beloved washing machine has been down for the count for about a week now, so I pulled out this cute little stamp set, mentally sending my Sears repair man some good vibes, since he has to come back, yet again, to replace a part.

 This weeks Taylored Expressions sketch fit this stamp perfectly and I paired this sketch with the cheerful colors from the Color Throwdown to brighten my day, amidst the piles AND piles of dirty laundry that are starting to tower.

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The Color Throwdown #114

I used RETIRED Bella Rose DSP for my chocolate chip, a circle embossing folder on my piece of so saffron (to give the illusion of bubbles), white embossing for my sentiment, crystal effects to give the washer a shiny paint effect and of course a bit of bling to finish it off. Happy washing!! 

Foxy Friends

My baby girl started Kindergarten this year (can't believe she's already old enough!) and since reading is such a big part of school, she and I whipped up these little bookmarks for her class. Her teacher this year has named her class, the foxes, so what better stamp than this cute little guy from "Fox & Friends" to display their mascot proudly?! Addie said they were a big hit and she had fun passing them out to her classmates.

Clearance Rack

Stampin' Up! has just unleashed a whole slew of new items to the clearance rack. Retired ink pads, cardstock, ribbon, embellishments, Designer Series Paper, scrappin' kits, envelopes, brads, punches, rub-ons, Sizzix dies and so much more! Hurry, check out the link and call or email me with your order while these AMAZING deals are still available.

dabblindawn@yahoo.com or 210-541-4920