Inspired by a Stack of Gifts

A catalog for Mrs. Prindable's handmade confections came to my house recently, and of course, I found inspiration inside.  The goodies themselves look yummy, too!
Check out this stack of gifts:

And here's my stack of gifts:

I used a new embossing folder by Sizzix called Powdered Sugar which has vertical rows of flowers, dots and diamonds.  I thought it would echo the vertical stack of presents.
And the presents....I made them by using 1", 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" square punches on retired flocked SU paper.  They have scalloped "lids", using a scallop border punch and white cardstock.  Each gift is propped up on dimensionals, and a metallic thread ties them all up together (each thread end is taped onto the backs of the smallest and largest gifts).  I also tied a bow separately near the top.

I am entering this card in five places:

• Play Date Cafe - use red and white

• Flourishes FLLCDEC10 - Winter white with a pop of color
• Splitcoast Free For All 41 - be inspired by the Nutcracker Suite (mine represent the boxes that the larger-than-life toys walk out of)
• Splitcoast Clean and Simple 96 - bows
• The Paper Players - Christmas card or project

 I believe my Creativity just walked back in the door.

Colleen

Paper:  Whisper White, retired flocked dp from SU, Real Red
Punches:  scallop border punch by SU; 1", 1 1/4", 1 3/8" squares
Other:  red metallic thread from Mike's, Big Shot, Sizzix Powdered Sugar embossing folder, dimensionals, Scotch tape

Monochromatic Sympathy & More

First of all, a warm welcome to all of my new subscribers!  Thank you so much for signing up.  It makes me happy that people like my stuff and want to see more.  :)

Despite my creativity leaving me high and dry today, I managed to pull off a card that looks halfway decent.

My sympathy card stash ran out, and I wanted to make a bunch relatively quickly.  I already had my Teeny Tiny Wishes and Baroque Motifs sets by SU out on the table, so I used them both.

I kept the color scheme monochromatic so I could enter in Caardvarks' Final Challenge.  Sadly, they are closing up shop.  We'll miss you!

Happy News x 3:

• My Plum Christmas card was a winner at Flourishes' Bring Back Beautiful challenge for November!  I now have a new badge at the top of my blog (it's hanging over the edge and I'm not sure how to fix that; darn!).

• Although I did not make it to the Final 3 in the Splitcoast Clean and Simple Winter Design Team Search, I was chosen as a Guest Designer.  My week comes up at the end of January 2011.   That sounds like fun!
• And finally, I am excited that my blog - which is a little over 6 months old - now has over 10,000 hits!  Whoo hoo -  I feel Blog Candy coming!  Keep watching....

Happy Stamping,

Colleen

Stamps:  Baroque Motifs, Teeny Tiny Wishes (SU)

Paper:  Night of Navy textured cardstock, Night of Navy dsp, Whisper White

Ink:  Night of Navy, Basic Black

Other:  pearls, Stampamajig

Baroque Birthday

This morning, I invited my Creativity to sit down with me for a cup of coffee and some card-making.  It politely refused.  I am not sure where it went, but I haven't seen it all day.

After almost a week without making cards, I began going into withdrawal.  So I sat down anyway.

I used a sketch by Inkspirations, flipping my sentiment panel to the other side:

And a color scheme by Off The Wall Craftiness (I only now realize that challenge is over):

Eh, what can I say?  My card certainly doesn't rock my boat, but I've done worse.

I'll be back with another post in a short while.   While Creativity went out today, I managed to pull off a decent sympathy card, even without its help. 

Stay tuned!

Happy Stamping,

Colleen

Stamps:  Baroque Motifs and Teeny Tiny Wishes by SU
Paper:  Chocolate Chip, Really Rust, Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White, Really Rust dsp
Ink:  Really Rust, Chocolate Chip
Punches:  small and large ovals
Other:  Big Shot, circle Spellbinders Nestabilities, Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon, stapler, dimensionals

A Neat Web Magazine & A Winner

Earlier this week, I played at a challenge blog that is new to me:  Inkspirations.  And on my first shot, I took top prize for this card:

My friend Benzi predicted this card to be a winner...and she was right.  Benzi, that's two for two now - I think I need to hire you as a consultant!!

Good stuff on the Web
I stumbled upon the prettiest web magazine recently, by inspire co., and wanted to share it with you.  It's just so beautiful to look at!
If you take this link, you see a magazine cover.  Click on it, and thumbnail-size pages are at the bottom for you to click on.  There are also a series of dots, that represent more pages of the magazine.  So you can click on all of those as well.  I hope you enjoy the projects and gorgeous photographs!

I'll be substitute-teaching this afternoon and working at the grocery store tonight...(sigh), a long day ahead of me.  No cards for me today.  :(  

Have a terrific weekend everyone!  Thanks for joining me.

Colleen

Ink-spired Xmas

My friend Marisa Ritzen is on the design team at Inkspirations (now you know how I got my post's title!), and yet somehow, I have never played in their challenges.  Until today.
Here's the current color challenge:

And at Waltzingmouse, this is the sketch:

My interpretation --

When I first looked at the color palette, it did not say "Christmas" to me.  But I was determined to make it a Christmas card,  just so I can add another one to my pile!

I had to substitute Certainly Celery for Pear Pizzazz.  But I don't think you can really tell, can you?

I'm entering at Mark's Finest Papers, too, where you need to use a bow.  Does a ribbon count??  ;)

That's it for now.  Thanks for joining me!

Colleen

Stamps:  Perfect Presentation & Wishing You Cheer, both by SU
Paper:  Rich Razzleberry, Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White
Ink:  Whisper White craft, Rich Razzleberry, Certainly Celery
Punches:  1" circle
Other:  glitter, ribbon scraps, dimensionals, blue rhinestone by Queen & Co.

Inspired by a Target Ad

Without intending to do it, I seem to have a "series" of Inspired by.... cards.  Cards whose ideas came to me while looking at everyday items.   Today's creation is based on a Target ad.

Check out the placemat in the top of the photo.

Now check out my interpretation:

Simple looking?  Yes.  Quick to make 8 of these?  No.  Those little holly berries took forever to glue individually, and they are so dang small!   And because I mass-produced 8 of these cards, other elements that took too long in my opinion:  

• the white-embossed sentiment.  I love how it looks and I wouldn't change it for anything, but doing so many of them - sigh. 
• cranking the Big Shot to get all those Little Leaves done.  You have to do them one by one.  :~{

I am entering this card here:

• Stampin' B - make a holiday card
• The Paper Players - use heat embossing
• SUO Challenges 7 - make a clean and simple Christmas card

If you want to see my other Inspired by.... cards, here are some links for you.
Inspired by Pottery Barn
Inspired by Glass Trees
Inspired by a Balloon Wreath
Inspired by an Ice Cream Ad
Inspired by a Priest's Stole
Inspired by a Tissue Box
Inspired by a Bathing Suit

While I was typing this post, I found out I won blog candy over at CupCards To Go!  You should go see their adorable monthly kits, and they always have commenting contests.  They are fun questions to answer, too!

Okay, that does it for now.  I'm off to make another card for another challenge....one that is new to me.  Thanks for joining me.  See you soon!

Colleen

Stamps:  All Holidays
Paper:  Real Red, Handsome Hunter, Wild Wasabi, Whisper White
Ink:  Versamark
Punches:  two-hole punch by SU
Other:  Big Shot, Little Leaves Sizzlit die, glue pen, white embossing powder, Stampamajig

Silver Snowflakes

Warning:   long post!
Hello everyone!  I sure have missed crafting and blogging this past week.   My holiday weekend was full, and I spent all day yesterday after church up in my attic, cleaning and tossing.  A dirty job, but I had to do it.  I couldn't even reach my Christmas decoration boxes.  That's how out-of-control things had gotten. 

Today I got to meet one of my online blogging friends, Andrea Ewen.  She and I both live in New Jersey, and we agreed to meet for lunch and shopping at -- where else?  -- craft stores.  We found out we have a lot more in common than just card-making.  She's so wonderful to talk to!  Can't wait to have another lunch date with her.  :)

Onto my card.

This card is my submission for Round 3 of the Clean and Simple Design Team Search at Splitcoast.  I'm so happy to have made it this far!  This is the final round, and winners will be chosen this coming Friday, 12/3.  My competitors are amazingly talented.  It must be very difficult to make the decision!

About the card:  I embossed a pearly, shimmery piece of designer paper (that I bought today with Andrea) using my new Northern Flurry embossing folder from Stampin' Up!
Using a Spellbinders die, I cut a circle from the same shimmery paper, then used the Tight Mat Tutorial by Becca Feeken to make a circle out of plain white cardstock.  I adhered a beautiful, silver snowflake sticker by Jolee's Boutique (another purchase from today) onto my circles.   The satin ribbons and silver cording are scraps. 

I'm entering this card at Mark's Finest Papers challenge #31 - have a bow on your card; Stampin' B - make a holiday card; Alphabet Challenge Blog - E is for Embossing; Flourishes' Bring Back Beautiful #4 - use ribbon; and Really Reasonable Ribbons blog - Christmas card with ribbon.

The above photo shows the shimmery paper best, I think.

One more bit of news today:
The following card helped me win last week at  The Play Date Cafe, where I earned a 'Cream In Our Coffee' badge.   
 To be honest with you, I wasn't all that crazy about this card.  I can't believe it won.  You never know, right?

And at EtsyInspired, this card earned me the Shop Prize!

Okay, I am done rambling.  Thanks for hanging in there!

Happy Stamping,

Colleen

Paper:  white by PTI; shimmery cardstock 'Winter Blues Snowflake' by ANW Crestwood
Other:  Big Shot, Northern Flurry ef by SU, satin ribbon and silver cord scraps, dimensionals, silver snowflake stickers by Jolee's Boutique, circle nesties by Spellbinders

Simple Thanksgiving

Just a quick post to share with you a simple Thanksgiving card I made today.  I'm bringing it to my in-laws house tomorrow.  We will have a scrumptious dinner there, and I will be grateful for every morsel of the gourmet food they cook.

The cornucopia stamp is from an older, retired SU set called Thankful Season.  I made 6 of these cards, and boy did it take a while to color in all of those foods!  That's what took the longest.  The rest of the card came together quite easily.

I thought the Square Lattice embossing folder gave the card a sort of woven tablecloth look.  Since this Spellbinder Label is so large, I kept the layout rather simple.

I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving, for those who live in the U.S.  And I want to tell ALL of you how grateful I am for your friendship, support and comments.  I have a lot of fun blogging, and it's nice to have an audience!  Bless you all.

Happy Stamping,

Colleen

Stamps:  Thankful Season, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Paper:  Close to Cocoa, Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, More Mustard
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Chocolate Chip
Punch:  modern label
Other:  Big Shot, Square Lattice embossing folder, dimensionals, chocolate pearls by Queen and Co., Copic markers, oval and labels ten Spellbinders nesties

Sparkling Ornaments & Pumpkin Bread

Happy news:  I made it to Round 2 of the Splitcoast Clean and Simple Design Team Challenge!  There are three challenges altogether, so if I make the cut this week, I go on to Round 3 soon.

Round 2 challenge dictates that the card be, of course, clean and simple, but also mention a relative.  This is my card for submission:

I heat-embossed the ornaments from Tree Trimmings (SU) with black embossing powder on scraps of a retired SU designer specialty paper that has something to do with a wedding (can't recall the name).  It's shiny, white, and has scrolls on it. 

For the sentiment panel, I used a designer label punch and black striped paper scraps from that same wedding pack mentioned above.  A small oval punch with the word "mother" on it came from the white scroll-y paper, too. 

I have very few stamps with a relative's title on it, so I decided that this can be my mom's Christmas card.  She adores black and white.

I am entering this at the Really Reasonable Ribbon challenge, as well, where the theme is Christmas with a ribbon.

This is the card I originally made for submission, but changed my mind.  I felt it was not CAS enough for the challenge:

There are two focal points on this version - the sentiment panel, and the three ornament.  That breaks a rule of the challenge, because there must be only one focal point. 

On this one, I silver-embossed the ornaments on black striped paper.

For these two cards, I used two new Sizzix Tim Holtz embossing folders:  Damask and Regal Flourishes.   I love 'em!  I made a mistake and used the folder backwards on both cards.   So, now they are debossed instead of embossed. 

I want to share my pumpkin bread recipe with you, the one I mentioned in the last post.
It has chocolate chips in it, so it is a bit different.  It calls for nuts too, but my kids don't like them so I don't put them in (boo hoo).

Pumpkin Bread

Makes two large loaves.  Preheat oven to 350.

Dry ingredients:
3 1/2 cups sifted flour (I don't bother to sift mine)
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves

Wet ingredients:
1 cup melted butter
2 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Blend butter and sugar.  Add eggs; blend.  Add pumpkin; blend.  Add wet ingredients to dry; blend.  Add chocolate chips and nuts, mix just until blended.  Spray two large loaf pans with no-stick cooking spray.  Pour batter 2/3 full into each pan.  OPTION:  sprinkle nuts on top of loaf instead of mixing in, or eliminate altogether.
Bake 1 hour or until a tester inserted into middle of loaf comes out clean.


Hope you enjoy that recipe.  My 9 YO will eat it, and that's really saying something for her.  (it's because of the chocolate, don't you know)

Thanks for joining me!

Colleen

Stamps:  Tree Trimmings (SU), Teeny Tiny Wishes
Paper:  Whisper White, white and black designer paper (retired) by SU
Ink:  Versamark
Punches:  designer label, small oval, large oval, wide oval
Other:  Big Shot, Sizzix Tim Holtz embossing folders in Damask and Regal Flourishes, red and clear rhinestones by Queen & Co., dimensionals, Cherry Cobbler marker, black and silver embossing powder, heat tool, silver cord scraps, black satin ribbon scraps

Mismatched Mittens

It's not a huge difference, but my mittens don't match.  Just goes to show you that coloring small, detailed images is best left to a time when you are not dog-tired.  :)

I'm using a new set from my recent Flourishes win, called Warm Winter Wishes.  It is such an adorable set.  I like the sentiments that come with it, too.

I tied a corduroy button onto my large oval punch with retired Fancy Fibers from Stampin' Up!.  The mittens were colored with SU markers, but since I don't have a Soft Sky marker (don't think they ever made one), I used an ink pad and blender pen.  For the cuffs and pom-poms, I custom-blended Martha Stewart Coarse Glitter in Crystal with MS Flocking Powder in Swan.

This card will be entered at Off The Wall Craftiness, whose color palette is this:

And also at Etsy Inspired Challenge, using this photo as my inspiration (courtesy of Queen of Tarts Cake Shop):

Aren't those mitten and sweater cookies too cute to eat?

One more entry:  Stampin' B, with snowflakes as the challenge.
As is often the case with me, I make two of a card and they each look subtly different.  Here are pix of the other card that was sponged with Soft Sky around the mittens, and the sentiment oval was placed elsewhere.

I'm off to make some Pumpkin Bread for my 9 YO's class celebration tomorrow.  I'll put the recipe here later for you, if you would like to try it.  It has chocolate chips in it, and if my 9 YO will eat this, then I think most picky eaters would as well.  We think Kerry will be an FDA Food Inspector when she grows up, the way she eyes her food in a microscopic way for anything that looks suspicious.  :)

Thanks for coming by.  I always appreciate your visit!

Colleen

Stamps:  Warm Winter Wishes by Flourishes

Paper:  Creamy Caramel, Soft Sky, Whisper White, kraft by SU

Ink:  Stazon Black, Creamy Caramel, Walnut Stain distress ink

Punches:  large oval, Martha Stewart zig zag

Other:  Big Shot; Spellbinders oval, scalloped oval & labels ten; pearls from Queen & Co.; dimensionals; corduroy buttons from SU; Fancy Fibers from SU; SU markers, blender pen; Martha Stewart Coarse Glitter in Crystal, MS Flocking Powder in Swan

Inspired by Glass Trees

Hello everyone.  I hope you've had a great weekend.  I am exhausted from a busy weekend at work (imagine working at a grocery store, several days before our Thanksgiving!).  I managed to make a quick card yesterday morning, inspired by these glass trees available at grandinroad.com:

These modern trees reminded me right away of the Stampin' Up! set, Patterned Pines.
And using the color palette from The Play Date Cafe....

....here is the simple card I came up with:

I used SU markers in Marina Mist, Tempting Turquoise; Old Olive, Always Artichoke; Poppy Parade, Cherry Cobbler.  With each tree, I first colored the image in the lighter of the two hues, then stroked on a darker marker.  Unfortunately, it's not all that noticeable.  :(
I was trying to be creative.

Luckily, I had matching rhinestone colors and coordinated them on the trees.
The ribbon is new to me, an Old Olive stripe from SU's Clearance Rack.  And the embossing folder is also new to me, from Sizzix, called Powdered Sugar (huh?). 

I'm also entering at Etsyinspired Challenge, which features Queen of Tarts Cake Shop as their inspiration this time 'round.  I chose this photo here, which features the colors of my card:

And also at Really Reasonable Ribbon's challenge blog, where the theme is Christmas with a ribbon.

Thanks so much for coming over.  I always appreciate your visit!

Happy Stamping,
Colleen

Stamps:  Patterned Pines by SU

Paper:  DCWV textured red cardstock, white by PTI

Other:  ribbon from SU, dimensionals, scalloped rectangle die from Spellbinders, SU markers (colors listed in paragraphs above), Stampamajig, Big Shot, Powdered Sugar embossing folder from Sizzix

Holly and Celery

Nope, I'm not offering any recipes containing holly leaves today.  The title refers to my holly-themed card and liberal use of Certainly Celery.

I made four of these last night, assembly-line style.  I used gold embossing powder to do the sentiment, which comes from the Stampin' Up! set Snow Swirled, and also the holly leaf cluster which comes from SU's Sleigh Bells Ring.  The leaves were colored with SU markers:  Certainly Celery, Old Olive, and Always Artichoke; the berries with Real Red and Cherry Cobbler.

How do you like the embossing folder?  It's new-to-me, from Sizzix, and it's called Snow Globe.  I think it's a misnomer.  It has nothing to do with snowglobes! 

I can proudly show you a close-up of my gold embossing -- see, no freckles!!

I'm entering in these challenges today:

• Flourishes FTTC93 - Just Do It! - make a Christmas card
• Flourishes Bring Back Beautiful #4 - to use ribbon

Thanks for dropping by today.  You have a wonderful weekend!

Happy Stamping,

Colleen

Stamps:  Snow Swirled, Sleigh Bells Ring (SU)
Paper:  Certainly Celery, Whisper White scrap
Ink:  Versamark
Other:  Big Shot, Sizzix embossing folder Snow Globe, gold embossing powder, SU markers, Certainly Celery grosgrain ribbon, dimensionals, Stampamajig