Polka Dots

Here's a little something I made for my sister for her birthday a few weeks ago. I found the bucket in the Target dollar bin and thought it went perfectly with my Polka Dot Basics set by Papertrey Ink. Since I was using Hershey Miniatures and not nuggets, I had to create my own "wrappers" that were a little bigger. The clear flowers are by Maya Road and I purchased those at Papertrey Ink as well. I stamped polka dots on them in Whisper White Craft ink. For a finishing touch, I added the rhinestone brads to the centers of the flowers and a paper pierced border on the card.

Thanks for stopping by today! Have a wonderful day! SUPPLIES USED: Stamps- Polka Dot Basics, Faux Ribbon (Papertrey Ink); Ink- Pixie Pink, Whisper White craft (SU); Paper- Whisper White, Pixie Pink (SU); Accessories- Sheer Blossoms (Maya Road), rhinestone brads (Darice), paper piercer, polka dot organdy ribbon (Doodliedoo), bucket from Target dollar bin

Beate Weekend Sketch #42

I finally inked up my Pun Fun set! All of you enablers who kept making the CUTEST cards with this set made me get it! LOL Since I decided to use the skunk from the set, I thought keeping the card black and white would be neat. The "splash" of red happened when I got to the flower. Since I didn't have very much striped black and white paper, I thought I'd mix polka dots and stripes. It's definitely different! :) I colored the skunk with a Basic Gray marker and then removed some color with my Aquapainter. The outline of the skunk and the flower were colored using Copic markers. Make sure you check out what Beate, Cambria, Jenn, Laurie, Mary Jo and Sharon have come up with for today's sketch! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful Friday! SUPPLIES USED: Stamp- Pun Fun (SU); Ink- Onyx Black (Versafine); Paper- All Dressed Up Stack, black, red (DCWV), white (Georgia-Pacific); Accessories- Jumbo circle punch, Mega scallop circle punch, Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder, Word Window punch, paper piercer, Basic Black marker, black polka dot organdy ribbon (Darice), white gel pen, flower eyelets (Oriental Trading)

Creamy Mossy Apricots

This was for this week's Color Challenge on SCS, Creamy Mossy Apricots. . .to use Creamy Caramel, Mellow Moss, Apricot Appeal and Cameo Coral. This was a little tough. I wouldn't normally put these colors together, but they do make for a nice spring card. Of course I didn't have the actual colors, so I had to subsitute others that were close. Most of the paper is Die Cut With a View with the exception of the "coral" which is actually Groovy Guava. The stamps are from Paper Pretties. The little girl is Cuddle Me Sophia and the sentiment is from the Look Who's Perky set. Thanks for stopping by today! SUPPLIES USED: Stamps- Cuddle Me, Look Who's Perky (Paper Pretties); Paper- caramel, moss, apricot (DCWV), Whisper White, Groovy Guava (SU); Ink- Creamy Caramel, Basic Black (SU); Accessories- oval punch, paper piercer, slit punch, Cameo Coral, Creamy Caramel, Apricot Appeal markers (SU)

Prettie Wednesday

Two weeks ago, Joanne challenged us to make a card using the masking technique. I knew I wanted to make "a chorus line" of these Wade E. Bugs. The sentiment is from the Stampin Up set Many Happy Returns. The card is nice and sparkly in real life and is one it's way to Christie. Hope you like it, Christie! Last week I issued the challenge to watercolor. I hope you might want to play along! Today, it's Jillian's turn to challenge us. I wonder what she'll choose! Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day! SUPPLIES USED: Stamps- Wade E. Bug (Paper Pretties), Many Happy Returns (SU); Paper- Glitter Stack (DCWV) white (Georgia-Pacific); Ink- Palette Noir; Accessories- Stardust Stickles, brads (Making Memories), paper piercer, Basic Black marker, small oval punch.

Verve Visual Honored Guest Challenge #2

It's time again for another Verve sketch! Check out the details HERE. I made two versions of this card because I couldn't decide if I like the ribbon or not, so I thought I'd show you the bare bones version and the "stepped up" version.

Head on over to the Verve Gallery to see what the rest of the awesome Design Team did with the sketch. Plus, there's some NEWS over at Verve!

Say hello to the four newest faces of Verve! Amy Sheffer from Pickled Paper Designs, Carole Burrage from Mother's Little Helper, Susan Liles from Susiestampalot, and Laura Fredrickson from Scrapnextras. A big congratulations to Shannan Teubner who has accepted the position as our new Design Team coordinator. Be sure to check out their blogs, as they'll be doing a little bit of celebrating Verve Style this week. :) Thanks for stopping by and have a great day! SUPPLIES USED: Stamps- Anniversary Birds, Thankful Blossoms (Verve Visual); Paper- Whisper White, Wild Wasabi (SU), Nana'sBaby Girl Nursery Stack (DCWV); Ink- Basic Black, Pretty in Pink, Wild Wasabi (SU); Accessories- eyelets (Making Memories), paper piercer, Regal Rose marker, rose organdy ribbon (Darice)

Be Inspired #7

It's another inspiration challenge from Beate! I've had this black glossy cardstock that I picked up a while ago and never used. I thought it would work well for this challenge. It DOES work well, but I found it impossible to keep from getting little specks of embossing powder everywhere. The oil from your fingers makes it stick to the glossy cardstock so easily. I stamped these images so many times to try to get a "cleaner" version, but perfect just wasn't happening. LOL The set is the Patterned Bugs set from Inkadinkado and the sentiment is from the Flutter By set from Paper Pretties. You can't tell so much from the photograph because of the lighting, but the black glossy cardstock is mounted on metallic gold cardstock. The large butterfly's wings are mounted with dimensionals for a 3d effect. Be sure and check out what Beate, Danielle Lounds, Dawn McVey, Jenn Balcer, Silke Ledlow and Susan Roberts came up with for today. I'm sure they will be gorgeous! Thanks for stopping by! SUPPLIES USED: Stamps- Patterned Bugs (Inkadinkado), Flutter By (Paper Pretties); Paper- black glossy cardstock, gold (DCWV Metallic Stack); Ink- Versamark; Accessories- gold embossing powder, black organdy ribbon (Darice), gold brads (Making Memories)

Savannah's Box

I've had the idea to make this little flashcard box for Savannah ever since Melanie sent me her What's In Your Tin 1 set. The borders looked like playing card to me. I've had the Stampin' Up sets ABC Images and both ABC Alphabets since they came out because I thought they'd be perfect for things like this. The box is a template from a collection of templates I bought at Oriental Trading Fun Expressions. I've used the templates before and someone asked me for a link once and I forgot to post one. You can find this set of templates here. I used the Gift Box template for this project. I used quite a few stamp sets too. The monogram "s" and the letters on the flashcards are from the ABC Upper and Lower Alphabets from Stampin' Up. The images are from the ABC Images set from Stampin' Up. The borders and "this belongs to" stamps are from What's in Your Tin 1 from GinaK Designs, and the letters I used to spell my daughter's name are from the Simple Alphabet by Papertrey Ink. I haven't finished all of the flashcards yet, but I'm close! :) Thanks for stopping by! SUPPLIES USED: Stamps- What's In Your Tin 1 (GinaK Designs), Simple Alphabet (Papertrey Ink), ABC Upper and Lower alphabets, ABC Images (SU); Paper- Purely Pomegranate, Basic Black, Whisper White (SU); Ink- Purely Pomegranate, Basic Black(SU); Accessories- box template (Oriental Trading), double stitched ribbon in Purely Pomegranate, 3/4" and 1" circle punches, various markers (SU)

These Boots Are Made For Walkin'

Here's a very simple card I made using the Ride 'Em Cowgirl set from My Favorite Things that I got in my Paper Pretties box. I say simple because I kept trying to add embellishments, but nothing looked right. Anything I tried to add made the card look too busy. . .maybe because of the patterned paper. That big flower is like an embellishment all by itself. The only thing I really added was the fringe. The sentiment is actually on the inside of the card as you can see from the second picture.

I wanted to let you know that my mother-in-law is in a regular room now instead of the ICU. She's still having a tough time of it with her recovery, but at least she's out of the danger zone. Thank you all so much for your thoughts and prayers. I am VERY grateful! Thanks for stopping by today! SUPPLIES USED: Stamps- Ride 'em Cowgirl (MFT); Ink- Burnt Umber (Palette); Paper- Wild Daisy Rd. (Heidi Grace); Accessories- Copic markers

Happy Mail!

I have been so fortunate lately to receive some Happy Mail! This first card is from Jessie Rone at Can You Say Addicted to Stamps. Isn't it ADORABLE? Jessie creates such BEAUTIFUL things and is such a sweetie too! As a matter of fact, she is joining the Paper Pretties team for the next three months and we're VERY excited to have her on board! Thank you, Jessie, for the adorable card.

The next card is from Kelley Herrick at Kelley's Craft Corner. I just LOVE these Changito stamps and Kelley knows it! She always sends me the sweetest cards just to say hello. This particular card she sent to congratulate me on winning the Papertrey Ink release. Unfortunately for me, it was another Charmaine! Yes, there are other Charmaine's out there! LOL I LOVE the card anyway, Kelley! Thank you so much!

The next card is from Linda MacDonald over at MacDonald Clan. She sent me this beautiful card for Easter. I just LOVE it. . .especially that Cuttlebugging in the background. Thank you so much, Linda. What a wonderful surprise to find in my mailbox!

The last card I received was from Melissa Norris at Melissa's Musings. Check out this fabulous card with the lawnmower charm! How neat is that? The REAL sewing on the card is just gorgeous too! (I do not sew. . .only faux sew LOL) Thank you, Melissa, for this adorable card! I really appreciate you thinking of me!

Art & More Award

This past week, I was awarded the Arte Y Pico (Art & More) Award by Samantha Esqueda at Fun With Paper. It is given to bloggers who share their art and creativity making their contribution to the blogging world. Wow, thank you, Samantha!

Here are the rules:

1. You have to pick five blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also contribute to the blogging community, no matter what language.
2. Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone
3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and the link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself
4. Award-winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of Arte y Pico blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.

This is tough because I love SO MANY blogs! I'm going to randomly pick 5 from my Google Reader. I KNOW you will enjoy all of them!

Joanne Basile at Just a Little Something

Barb at Barb's Card Creations

Alex at California Stampin

Bev Breisinger at Country Frog Creations

Julie Desper at Need to Stamp