Howdy and an Anniversary Hop!

This past weekend, there was a mini Virtual Stamp Night going on at SCS. My good friend and fellow Prettie Girl Jules was hosting one of the challenges. Her Love Me Tender challenge was to make a card with something soft on it. I used Caramel Latte Flocking for Sophia's hat, the trim on her boots and the center of the scalloped heart. I also used some chocolate velvet ribbon for some extra added softness. Thanks for the great challenge, Jules!

Today starts the celebration of Paper Pretties' 2nd year! We're celebrating in true Prettie style and you won't want to miss out! This will be a 3 day Blog Hop - starting today!! Remember that on the 25th at 8 pm EST we'll all meet in the 2nd Anniversary Party Forum at Paper Pretties to celebrate and find out who the grand prize winner of our Blog Hop contest is, as well as the winner of a few other goodies. Plus there will be prizes every 1/2 hour at the party and everyone who orders that night will receive a free roll of American Craft ribbon! Yum!! :)
Our hop this time requires a little bit of work on your part. As always we are releasing a new Sophia stamp for our March SOTM. Your job is to guess what this Sophia is doing!! The grand prize is a 6 month subscription to the Stamp of the Month Club. In order to win the prize, you'll need to collect all of the clues from the blog hop - 13 in all and submit your answer to Christie (christie@paperpretties.net). Answers must be in by 8am on the 25th to qualify.

To start today's blog hop, hop on over to Christie's blog where it all starts. Remember, you'll have to collect all of the clues (13 over the next 3 days) and figure out what the new Sophia that's being released is doing! Good luck and have fun!

Virtual Stamp Night (Part Two)

This was for the Kids Travel Pouch Challenge, to create a travel game for your kids. I really enjoyed this challenge, although I wish I would have had more time to color better and make more cards! Old Crab is my version of Old Maid, except nobody wants the Crabby Crab. I used 4.25"x3" pieces of Whisper White to make the game cards. I colored using the Bold Brights ink pads and an Aquapainter. SUPPLIES USED: Stamps- Fishy Friends, Silly Sealife, Fintastic, Classic Alphabet, Big Deal Alphabet, Spunky Alphabet; Paper- Whisper White, DCWV Red, Basic Black; Ink- Basic Black, Bold Brights ink pads for watercoloring; Accessories- 6x6 page protector, gingham ribbon for handle, Aquapainter.

The Room with a View Challenge was very interesting. I had never made anything like this before, but it was A LOT of fun! You had to create a 3D world that you'd like to escape to. I chose an undersea world. To make one of these, all you have to do is start with an 8.5"x8.5" piece of cardstock. Score at 4.25" on both sides so you end up with four equal squares. Then you cut on the score line between two of the squares and when you fold it up, the one bottom side tucks under the other. I hope that made sense. You should try one, and even look at the submissions to this challenge. There are some AMAZING 3D worlds! SUPPLIES USED: Stamps- Silly Sealife, Fintastic, Shore Thing; Ink- Basic Black, Tempting Turquoise, Summer Sun; Paper- turquoise, Whisper White; Accessories- Prismacolor pencils, gamsol, stump.

My last one was for the Survivor Altered Tin Challenge. It was to create an altered tin survival kit for a special getaway. I chose to alter this CD tin. When driving long distances, I find it necessary to have CDs, DVDs (for passengers) and Books on CD. They help to make the trip shorter! :) (especially those books on CD) This was a fun challenge because I don't alter things too often, so it got me out of usual card mode. Hope you were able to play along a bit on Virtual Stamp Night. If not, maybe next time? It really is a lot of fun, and you only have to do as much as you CAN do. No rules that say you have to do every challenge. . .so try it next time! :) Thanks for visiting and have a great rest of your weekend! SUPPLIES USED: Stamps- Spunky Alphabet, Rough Edges Alphabet; Ink- Chocolate Chip, Certainly Celery; Paper- DCWV Spring Stack, Certainly Celery; Accessories- CD tin, Prima flowers, Making Memories brad, May Arts ribbon, Oriental Trading ribbon, Crop-a-Dile.

Virtual Stamp Night (Part One)

Well, I thought I'd share some of my cards for the Virtual Stamp Night challenges with you. This one was for the Piercing Even Your Mother Would Approve Of Challenge. I have the Love It brass template and thought I'd use it for this challenge. SUPPLIES USED: Stamps- Think Big; Paper- DCWV, Certainly Celery; Ink- Basic Black; Accessories- horizontal slot punch, Love It brass template, Offray ribbon.

This next card was for em-BOSS Resist Challenge, to use the Emboss Resist Technique. I took it a step further and added the Emerging color technique to it. Basically what that means is that you stamp a pattern on the cardstock BEFORE you emboss resist, and that will show through the resisted image (rather than just plain cardstock that you started with). I used a sponge for all of the ink coverage rather than a brayer. SUPPLIES USED: Stamps- Butterfly Kisses; Ink- Versamark, Basic Black, Pixie Pink, Lovely Lilac, So Saffron, Tempting Turquoise; Accessories- Word window punch, Making Memories brads, Offray ribbon, clear embossing powder.

The last in this post was for the Wish You Were Here Challenge, to make a postcard. I had no idea what to do with this. You only have 45 minutes to complete each challenge, so all the thinking and planning have to happen fast. . .especially if you want time to play around with layouts or other ideas. SUPPLIES USED: Stamps- Wild About You, Riveting, Be Happy, Tagger's Dozen; Paper- Whisper White, DCWV Red; Ink- Basic Black, Old Olive, More Mustard, Night of Navy, Ruby Red; Accessories- black marker.