SSINKMC24: Manly Stars

Today’s card is being featured on Stylin’ Stampin’ Inkspiration. The challenge was to create a card using our Mystery Challenge Rules. What to do? Should I use all five elements, only three, or maybe four? I ended up using four of the elements!

I decided to play off the colors and make a more masculine card. I love the new color collection DSP patterns and just had to feature some in Tip Top Taupe. Such a nice layering piece. From there, I decided that the white piece was too plain with just the sentiment, so I added some stars. Much better! I finished off the card with some die cut stars and a bit of sparkle with the gold sequin trim.

• Stamps: Perfect Pennants
• Inks: Tip Top Taupe, Night of Navy, Hello Honey
• Cardstock: 2015-2017 In Color DSP; Night of Navy; Whisper White
• Accessories: Gold Sequin Trim
• Tools: Stars Framelits

Sparkly Anniversary

One of the anniversary cards that I made for my grandparents' 60th Anniversary. I chose a purple, black, white, and diamond color palette. My favorite piece is the dazzling diamonds paper. Simple but striking card.

• Stamps: Your Perfect Day (retired)
• Inks: Rich Razzleberry
• Cardstock: Rich Razzleberry; Basic Black; Whisper White; Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper
• Accessories: Everyday Chic Washi Tape
• Tools: Sweetheart Punch; Ovals Framelits

Lovely Flowers

Today’s card is being featured on Stylin’ Stampin’ Inkspiration. The challenge was to feature one of our favorite products. I've fallen for A Whole Lot of Lovely. It's completely not my style of stamp set and yet I was drawn to it. (Side note: I think my style might be opening up...) I went with a very simple design featuring two of the stamps from the set. I love the simple nature of this very feminine card.

• Stamps: A Whole Lot of Lovely
• Inks: Lost Lagoon; Tip Top Taupe
• Cardstock: Crumb Cake
• Accessories: Tea Lace Paper Doilies; Rhinestones
• Tools:

Desktop Thursday #8

Working on my September design team cards. Apparently I am really into blues and yellows right now...

SSINK Mystery Supply Challenge

Today’s card is being featured on Stylin’ Stampin’ Inkspiration. The challenge was a new one for me. Each of the design team members sent three embellishments/supply pieces to another team member. The receiving team member had to create a card using the sent supplies. Sounds like so much fun! I sent my supplies out to Carrie Rhoades. Check out what I sent and what she made on the main page. I received these supplies from Darcy Johnson: stamped images from Groovy Love, gold glitter, and Bermuda Bay sequin trim. I own the sequin trim, but the other two supplies were new.

What I make? I'll admit that the the Groovy Love stamp set isn't my style, but it was nice to stretch myself. I decided to play with lots of shine and hearts. I stamped the heart image from Hello Life in Versamark and sprinkled on the glitter. To keep it from getting everywhere, I ended up covering the card with a piece of window sheet. From there, I layered on the cardstock and some of the stamped hearts. Lastly I added the final supply (sequin trim) under a heart in the corner. Very bright and fun card!

• Stamps: Groovy Love; Hello Life
• Inks: Versamark, Rich Razzleberry, Melon Mambo, Bermuda Bay
• Cardstock: Basic Black, Rich Razzleberry, Melon Mambo, Bermuda Bay
• Accessories: Bermuda Bay Sequin Trim; Window Sheets
• Tools: Sweetheart Punch

Currently...

Watching: Catching up on some of the backlogged Vlog Brothers videos. Love Hank and John Green!

Reading: A friend game me Interest by Kevin Gaughen to read this week. Starting it today. Hope it's good.

Listening: Arthur's huge into talking right now, but I still only understand about 40% of what he's saying.

Making: After almost of week of other activities, I'm getting back into making cards for the design team. First up: kid birthday card featuring Stampin' Up's No Bones About It stamp set.

Feeling: This weekend was crazy busy with the craft garage sale and Thirty-One party, but it was energized me for the coming week. I'm ready to get moving on some of my other goals this week.

Planning: Speaking of the coming week, I'm getting our schedule set with some fun excursions and the usual chores.

Loving: I made lemon poppyseed muffins for yesterday's Thirty-One party and thankfully there were a few leftover for me! Yum yum!

Project Life July 2015

My color palette was red, white, and blue of course. We documented the last few weeks with the twins and my mom's visit here in California.

Simple Watercolor Wings

Today’s card is being featured on Stylin’ Stampin’ Inkspiration. The challenge was to create a card featuring butterflies. I am obsessed with all the butterfly stamps that Stampin' Up offers. For last month's order, I bought the Watercolor Wings set and matching framelits. This stamp set is just gorgeous! I couldn't wait to play with some color combinations. I ended up making three different cards featuring the same design but different colors. The one below is may absolute favorite. And it was so easy to create!

After making my initial card, my mom created the card below. She stepped up the card by adding some silver glitter. Very cute!

• Stamps: Watercolor Wings
• Inks: Wisteria Wonder; Perfect Plum; Blackberry Bliss; Pool Party; Lost Lagoon; Night of Navy; Crumb Cake; Basic Gray
• Cardstock: Blackberry Bliss; Perfect Plum
• Accessories: Silver Sparkle Dazzling Details
• Tools:

Find Your Voice - Part 2

I ran across rukristin’s free 6-week workshop Find You Voice. I love her blog and her products, especially the Currently line. I have a ton of things going on this summer, but I had to stick this project in somewhere. If you want to join us, head on over and sign up. For the project, I choose to add these pages into my household binder along with my OLW pages. Once I decided the where, I had to decide how. Looking at all my crazy supplies, I had to narrow it down. I often get overwhelmed in choices. I started with myMessy Boxes from A Beautiful Mess that have been piling up on the counter. I kept saving them for no good reason, but yeah for this project apparently. I added a few stamps, some embellishments, and alphas to complete my stash.

Here are the last three week's creative challenge pages.

Week 4: What Do You Have to Say focused on the stories you want to tell. The challenge was to document a story. I decided to use Arthur's birth story. Very structured page, but it helped to think about what I wanted to say succinctly, but covering everything. These special moments are definitely the type of stories I want to tell!

Week 5: Expressing Your Voice focused on your personal style. I decided to document my favorite design elements for my creative challenge. The color palette is more muted than my usual, but it's nice to branch out every once in awhile.

Finally Week 6: Building On Your Story focused on wrapping up and setting some goals. In fact the creative challenge was to document my storytelling goals. I decided on five major goals with some ways to achieve those goals. Simple page, but I like it!

Overall this workshop has been great at helping me to branch out. I used a ton of supplies that aren't my normal go-tos. I ventured back into traditional scrapbooking to stretch my limit. And I really thought about some my storytelling approach. Thank you Kristin for creating such a great workshop!

Desktop Monday #7

It's paper clean-out and inventory week... Every few weeks I need to update my inventory spreadsheet and figure out what I'm low on. It's a bit of a task, but usually only takes me about 30 minutes to complete. No crafting until it's done!