Stampin Royalty Challenge #33

It's Wednesday - and time for another Challenge at Stampin Royalty. This week we have a Theme challenge. This week it's all about SCHOOL DAYS. Now as a teacher on summer holidays, I don't really want to think about school yet, but here's what I came up with.

It's a back to school card. I whipped this puppy up in MDS and then printed it out in layers and cut and glued, and popped up everything. This is the result. Check below for more details on how to make this card. Here's a peek at the inside.

Above you will find the jpegs of my actual MDS projects that I printed out.

The Fun Stuff

-Not From My Digital Studio
1. Paper – Basic Grey and Whisper White cardstock
2. Punches – 1 ¼” and ½” round punches
3. Accessories – Whisper White Satin Ribbon, Bashful Blue Button (retired), Silver Thread, Stampin Dimensionals

- Digitally in My Digital Studio
1. Paper – Riding Hood Red, Basic Grey, Whisper White, and Geometric Patterns DSP
2. Stamp Brush Set – School Days

Happy Birthday Beautiful

My daughter's birthday is next week. Shes' going to be 3 years old. I can't believe it's been 3 years since I was last pregnant. One of my friends tells me that she believes that birthdays should be for the mother, because she's the one who did most of the work until that point. For those of you who don't know, my daughter was actually a bit of an accident. When my son was 6 months old, I got pregnant with my daughter. We had just bought our current house and were about to move closer to our families. We didn't think that we would get pregnant that fast given my age (I was 38). But apparently we are very fertile. In Canada we get 12 months of maternity leave, but I needed to go back early in order to stock up for my next maternity leave, so when I was 10 weeks pregnant in a difficult pregnancy, I went back to work full-time, my husband got very sick, and we moved houses. Basically I packed up and unpacked our entire house while my husband lay in bed, I had an 8 month old baby, was 1o weeks pregnant, and working full time. Thank GOODNESS for grandparents is all I can say. I went into labour 7 weeks before she was actually born. It's called prodromal labour and although it's not terribly painful, it's very stressful. So I lay around the house for most of the summer (and it was HOT). But enough about me. In the end we wound up with a beautiful, smart, strong, stubborn, funny, delightful baby girl. She is the light of my life. My son is amazing too, but my daughter and I have such a kinship as she and I come from a long line of very strong viking women, and she reminds me of myself all the time.

Needless to say, I made this birthday card for her. I looked all over the web for a princess stamp and found this one at Digital Delights. She's called Princess Shona. I put her in MDS (my digital studio) and printed her out several times on various patterned paper and then cut out the parts and paper pieced her together. My daughter LOVES pink, so thus the pink dress, and she has blonde hair and blue eyes, so I tried to make the princess look like her.

The Fun Stuff - on MDS
1. Princess Shona - look above for link
2. Text - done in Microsoft Word
3. Colours - So Saffron, Blushing Bride, Concord Crush, Whisper White and Blush Blossom (ink with an aquapainter.
4. Accessories - blender pen, Scallop Trim border and corncer punches, large oval and scallop oval punches, stampin dimensionals, stampin' write marker.

PPA Birthday

Here's my attempt at the latest challenge over at PPA. It's a colour challenge this week and WOW are they bright colours. So I went back to my tried and true formula of using lots of WHITE on a card with bright colours. I decided to use ribbon as my medium. So I went through my retired stuff and pulled out last year's In Colours which are close (or including) these colours. So obviously Melon Mambo is the same, but Tempting Turquoise is close to Bermuda Bay, and Crushed Curry is close to Daffodil Delight. So I pulled out my stash of organza ribbon and matched it as best I could to the grosgrain. The Whisper White was embossed with the wallpaper textured impressions folder. The brads are from my stash, and the sentiment was stamped in Tempting Turquoise, and then punched out with the wide oval punch. Then the matte was punched out of Daffodil Delight with the new Decorative Label Punch.

The Fun Stuff
1. Paper – Whisper White, Daffodil Delight, Tempting Turquoise cardstock
2. Ink – Tempting Turquoise, Daffodil Delight
3. Punches – Decorative Lable and Wide Oval
4. Accessories – Grosgrain Ribbon (retired), Organza Ribbon and brads (from my stash), Wallpaper Textured Impressions folder, Stampin’ Dimensionals

Birthday Bots!!!!

Aren't these cards absolutely adorable???? I cut these little robots out of some wrapping paper from Connor's last birthday party. First I pulled colours from the robot for the card. Then I ran some through the Big Shot with the Square Lattice Textured Impressions Folder. I punched the corners with the ticket corner punch. The sentiment and the 101110101 numbers are from the set Lots of Bots. I used the Stamp-ama-jig to line up the number stamps. The sentiment was punched with the small oval punch and then I cut the small pointy shape and attached it to the back to look like a talking bubble.

This page was made using My Digital Studio. The colours come from Stacy's Stamping Stage and the sketch was from Mercy's blog. Although I discovered that I couldn't enter it there as I didn't use stamps from the right company, but I really like the sketch. I might use it again.

The Fun Stuff – All on My Digital Studio
1. Paper – background = Early Espresso, DSP = Summer Splendor
2. Punches – Circle, Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border, Square
3. Colours – Whisper White, Very Vanilla, Earl Espresso, Peach Parfait and Pear Pizzaz
4. Stamps – Greatest Moments II, Vintage Overlays
5. Accessories – Stitching, Paper Daisies, Hodgepodge Hardware

Kind Color Throwdown

This card was made for this week's Color Throwdown. As I've said many times purple and green is my favourite colour combo. This card was cased from a card by Chat. Click here to see her original card. I changed things up a bit and used a different sentiment.

The Fun Stuff:
1. Paper – Whisper White, Elegant Eggplant, Always Artichoke, Soft Suede patterned paper (retired)
2. Ink – Elegant Eggplant
3. Stamps – Echoes of Kindness
4. Punches – Two Step Bird, and Scallop Trim
5. Accessories - Floral Fusion Sizzlit for the Big Shot, Pretties Kit

Birthday at the Colour Q

This week at Colour Q is a fabulous colour combo. I just couldn't resist it. This card was cased from my friend, and fellow Stampin' Royalty Goddess, Angela McKay. Click here for her original card. This card is also eligible for the Embossing challenge over at Our Creative Corner.

As you can see I couldn't decide on a layout, so I rotated the card and made 2 styles. The gifts are from the fantastic new hostess set Playful Pieces. Each gift was stamped on Whisper White and then cut out and mounted on matching cardstock. The labels were punched out, mounted on coloured cardstock and then carefully cut out with craft scissors.

The Fun Stuff
1. Paper – Whisper White, Wild Wasabi, Tempting Turquoise, Regal Rose, Early Espresso
2. Ink - Wild Wasabi, Tempting Turquoise, Regal Rose, Early Espresso
3. Stamps – Playful Pieces, Sincere Salutations
4. Accessories – Extra Large Decorative Label punch, Early Espresso Satin Ribbon, Stampin’ Dimensionals, Square Lattice, and Wallpaper Textured Impressions Folder

Stampin Royalty Challenge #32

Well it's Wednesday and that means it's time for another challenge at Stampin' Royalty. This week we have a fabulous colour challenge for you. I absolutely LOVE colour challenges. I made this card for a customer who owns a small winery in town and needed some thank you cards for clients. I knew that the wine bottle stamp from Studio Sketches would be perfect. I stamped the image in Close to Cocoa and then used blender pens to colour in the images. I then used the colour spritzer tool to spray Crumb Cake ink to add dimension. The sentiment was stamped on a retired Love Note, and then adhered to Not Quite Navy cardstock and then carefully cut out and popped up on dimensionals.

The Fun Stuff:
1. Stamps – Studio Sketches, Thank You Kindly
2. Paper – Sweet Pea DSP (retired), Not Quite Navy and Whisper White Cardstock.
3. Ink – Old Olive, Cherry Cobbler, Daffodil Delight, Close to Cocoa, Crumb Cake
4. Accessories – Not Quite Navy Brads, Love Notes, Satin Organza Ribbon, Stampin’ Dimensionals, Blender Pens, Colour Spritzer Tool

Summertime Splendor on My Digital Studio

I whipped up this set of cards in a flash on My Digital Studio. I love this new Summertime Splendor paper available as a digital download. The original idea of these cards come from the wonderfully talented Gretchen Barron. I cropped the paper and added the sentiment digitally. Once I printed them out I mounted them on whisper white cardstock and voila!!!

PenScrappers August Contest

This page was made using My Digital Studio. Now these images are not my usual style, but I couldn't resist the free kit and the contest to play in over at Pen Scrappers. Click Here to pop over to their site and vote for my page. I would greatly appreciate your vote. :)

Colouring Throwdown

These cards were made for this week's Colour Throwdown. I have to admit that I didn't find these colours easy to work with, but then I pulled out this retired DSP from a few years back and was immediately inspired. Isn't a colour challenge supposed to challenge you anyway???

Sweet Stampin' Curtain Call

My sister-in-law just gave birth to my 5th nephew last week. (This is her third boy - crazy lady) Just to put this all in perspective. My son is 4 and he is the oldest grandchild on both sides. Yes, my SIL has 3 boys and the oldest is 3 years old!!!! But I digress...

This card was inspired by a card on page 96 of the current Stampin' Up! Idea Book and Catalogue. I needed to make a new baby congratulations card and noticed the colours at this week's Curtain Call was and excellent match. I also used the sketch at this weeks Sweet Stampin' Challenge blog.

The Fun Stuff1. Cardstock –Whisper White, Crumb Cake, Marina Mist, Night of Navy
2. Ink - Crumb Cake, Marina Mist, Night of Navy
3. Stamps – Fox and Friends, Well Scripted
4. Accessories – Scallop Trim Border punch, Satin Organza Ribbon, Stampin’ Dimensionals

Party Time at Colour Q

This card was made for this week's Party Time Tuesday and Colour Q challenges. I found these colours really difficult to work with but once I had pulled out all these colour ink pads and stared at them for a while I decided to go back to my old formula of using a lot of white and minimizing the rest of the colours. These are really summery colours (yellow sun, blue ocean...) and this card is for my nephew's birthday next week - so I figured it went with the summer birthday theme over at Party Time Tuesday.

The Fun Stuff1. Paper – Sweet Pea DSP
2. Cardstock – Riding Hood Red, So Saffron, Bashful Blue, Basic Black, Whisper White
3. Ink - Hood Red, So Saffron, Bashful Blue, Basic Black
4. Punches – Scallop Square, Wide Oval
5. Stamps – Fox and Friends, Birthday Bliss

Mojo 150

This card is for the sketch challenge over at Mojo Monday this week. I have been staring at my new Greenhouse Gala paper for a month now and finally was inspired to pull it out to make this card. This card is inspired by this card made by Andrea Walford. The base of the card is Chocolate Chip. I ran the cardstock through the Big Shot with the Square Lattice Textured Impression Folder.

The Fun Stuff:
1. Paper – Chocolate Chip Cardstock, Baja Breeze Cardstock, Greenhouse Gala DSP
2. Accessories – Scallop Trim Border Punch, Satin Organza Ribbon (retired), Old Olive Brads (retired)

Stampin Royalty Challenge #31

This week at Stampin' Royalty we have a fabulous challenge for you. This week, the challenge is to make your own patterned paper, and then incorporate it into a project. I used My Digital Studio, and one of the latest downloads (Broadsheet Alphabet) to create my patterned paper. I was inspired by a sample in the current catalogue from Stampin' Up! To make this paper, first I 'stamped' all the letters on a 12x12 page. Because I used My Digital Studio, it was easy to resize various letters to add interest to the page. Then I colour matched them to all of the new core colours and the newest In Colors. Finally I used Kraft as the background colour and then lightened its opacity so that the letters had better contrast. I printed the photo out twice and then taped them together on the back to make this strip of patterned paper. I used it on my 8x8 page above. I found this fabulous scottish proverb to create the journaling. It says IF EGOTISM IS AN ALPHABET OF ONE LETTER AS THE SCOTTISH PROVERB SAYS, THEN FAMILY MUST BE AN ALPHABET OF MULTIPLE LETTERS. This card also qualifies for the challenge of BUTTONS over at Everything But The Kitchen Sink.

Papertake #45

So when I made my scrapbook page the other day, I stamped a few copies of the sentiment and coloured them in differently. So I had a few left over. I decided to try my hand at this sketch from papertake weekly. I love the colours of this card. For more details on the colours and paper click here.

The Fun Stuff
1. Ink – Tempting Turquoise, So Saffron, Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Chip,
2. Paper – Sweet Pea DSP, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White
3. Accessories – Clear Embossing Powder and Heat Gun, Stampin Dimensionals, Aquapainter
4. Non Stampin’ Up! – Stamps from Stampology and texture folder for the Cuttlebug.

Pink Elephant #18 and Hand Stamped #26

Well today I tried something new. I combined the sketch challenge from Pink Elephant (Ella's Pink Scrapbook - Challenge #18 ) and the challenge over at Hand Stamped Sentiments (watercolouring HSS #26). I bought these awesome stamps yesterday. It's from a set called Between The Lines from Stampology. We went down to the river yesterday and rode our bikes on the seawall in Richmond. For you Winter Olympic fans it's the suburb in Vancouver where the Speed Skating oval is . We had a great time in the sun and then had lunch on the dock and checked out the fishing boats. After lunch we went down to the docks and bought some shrimp and fish to BBQ. My son and daughter loved checking out the boats. I took tons of photos - and I'll scrap them soon. My favourite photo of the day was this one of my daughter. She's almost 3 years old, but lately she's been in the 'terrible two's' with a vengance. So to catch her smiling with her favourite stuffie was quite the achievement. Anyway, back to the page. The stamps were just screaming for watercolouring, so I pulled out my Aquapainters to get the job done. But first I stamped the image with Craft Ink and heat embossed the image to create a raised profile. I really like this technique as it prevents the colours from running together when wet. I used the retired Sweet Pea DSP (patterned paper) because the colours complimented the colours in the photo.

The Fun Stuff:
1. Paper – Sweet Pea Patterned Paper (ret), Whisper White, Tempting Turquoise
2. Ink – Tempting Turquoise, So Saffron, Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie
3. Punches - 1 ¼’ square punch, large scallop circle punch
4. Accessories – Aquapinters, Blender Pens, Stampin’ Write Markers, Stampin’ Dimensionals
5. Non Stampin’ Up! – Stamps – Between the Lines from Stampology

Monochromatic PPA

It's a monochromatic colour challenge this week at Pals Paper Arts. And the colour you need to use is.....PURPLE!!!!!! I LOVE purple. So I knew that I just could NOT pass this one by. I used this retired stamp set - From The Earth - yesterday and I really wanted to try it out again. Those little square stamps are practically screaming for a square punch. I really really really wanted to use Concord Crush as my colour, but my shipment has not arrived yet, so I went with my old standby...Elegant Eggplant.

The images were stamped and cut out and then mounted on a scallop square punch out. The background was embossed with a textured impression folder. Then I used a sponge and ink and daubed it and swirled it around on the cardstock very lightly to create a lighter background of the same tone. To get the purple ribbon I used an aquapainter and a reinker and painted the colour on white taffeta ribbon. Then I pulled some other purple ribbon from my stash and layered the two together. I created the bow with black thread and a button from my stash.

The Fun Stuff:
1. Paper – Elegant Eggplant and Whisper White cardstock
2. Ink – Elegant Eggplant
3. Accessories – Finial Press Textured Impressions Folder, Scallop Trim Border Punch, Scallop Square punch, Smooch Spritz, Sponges, Taffeta Ribbon, Black Thread, Stampin’ Dimensionals
4. Non-Stampin’ Up! – button and bottom ribbon from my stash