Dare to Get Dirty Challenge

Hi everyone! Are you a member of the SCS Fan Club? If so, the Dirty Girl challenges started on Saturday and I saw this one today from my friend Holly (Toy on SCS) and had to play! If you aren't a Fan Club member, join! SCS is full of so much inspiration it's worth the $25 or so a year to join! You can find the details of this challenge here (we are supposed to keep the details of the challenge secret to those non-members so they are enticed to become a Fan!).

I love using the templates created by Lauren Meader (when she was designing for PTI and now for her own company, My Time Made Easy). This one is from MTME and it's called Trendy Tote! She makes them so easy to put together and has thought of every detail. I went super simple with this one! I started with the JUGs colors this week of orange, navy, green, and cream. I couldn't get something done in time to play with my team this week, so I decided to incorporate the colors into this project. I used SU's night of navy and certainly celery cardstock and Jersey Shore dp. I added the green and orange bling, the tag from MTME A Spot of Tea set, some star dust stickles on the tag, and certainly celery ribbon and was done! I cut the template out using my Cricut and SCAL program...done in a flash! Here's another shot of the side of the tote.My sister-in-law had surgery on her shoulder today, so I stamped the Thinking of You sentiment from the same MTME set. I'm going to fill it with some good chocolate and maybe a book or two. She's going to be laid up for about 6 weeks, so she needs something to keep her busy. Today I just filled it with some silk greenery in pots that I display on my kitchen window sill.

Thanks again for stopping in today! I hope your week is going well! I'm off to straighten the house and finish my laundry before going out to a new restaurant tonight with my best friend, Maria! See you tomorrow!

Dirty Cupcakes

Well, that doesn't sound very appetizing, does it? But the challenge is! It's Taylor's Dare to Get Dirty Challenge for today and we had to use....cupcakes in our card (of course because Taylor is all about cupcakes)! I pulled out all the cupcake stuff I had (which was surprisingly a lot). I ended up with this design because of the ribbon. That was my inspiration today. I matched up this patterned paper from Basic Grey's Cupcake and the pink pirouette and riding hood red from SU. The big cupcake, from Inkadinkadoo, was colored with copic markers. The pink frosting was stamped on scrap, colored and cut out. I didn't put it on dimensionals, but paper pieced it because it gave it more dimension. The jimmies were colored with copics, then I went over them with Spica glitter pens. The "Enjoy Your Day" image from Riveting was altered in the middle with the cupcake from Short and Sweet. I just stamped it on scrap, punched it with the 3/4" punch, and put it up on a dimensional. I added dew drops (again!) to that image and in each corner of the card (love them!). I used Julee Tilman's Mojo Monday #46 sketch (I thought it was this week's sketch, but it was from a couple of weeks ago!). I think this is a cute "girlie" birthday card. I only wish the cucakes on the ribbon were going in the other direction! Oh well, thanks for lookin'!

Recipe

Stamps: Inkadinkadoo Birthday Cupcake, SU Riveting and Short and Sweet

Paper: Pink pirouette, riding hood red, white, Basic Grey Cupcake

Ink: Adirondack black, copic markers

Accessories: Michael's ribbon, Nestabilities, dew drops, dimensionals, circle punches, ticket corner punch

Dare to Get Dirty?

Yes, you can Dare to Get Dirty if you are an SCS Fan Club Member. There is a whole other part of SCS for Fan Club Members that is fabulous! Just another perk for being an SCS member. All this week, the "Dirty Girls" are putting out challenges. Holly, aka Toy (who happens to live about 3 miles from me), put out this sketch challenge. If you are a Fan Club member, you can find it here. I loved this sketch and started this card at 1:00 AM! I was busy all day, and finally got a chance to look at the challenge! Crazy, I know, but when I get my second wind, I could stay up all night (night owl, I guess!).

Back to the card. I had to find an image small enough to fit this oval. I was bummed because I thought I had oval Nestabilities, but realized I didn't. Luckily I had the Marvy ovals that worked fine. In the end, I chose this Karen Lockhart stamp (it's called Tomato with Greens). I colored it with copic markers. I used a white gel pen to highlight the tomato. I also used Spica glitter pens in silver for the hanger and clear to add some shimmer to the greens. It doesn't show up in the picture, but when the light hits it, it's quite shimmery. I used the white gel pen again to draw some dots in the scallops of the mat for the main image. I used the largest scalloped Nestability I had to cut the white piece and then ran it through the Swiss Dots cuttlebug folder. I needed some sort of embellishment, and went for the new SU buttons. This one is Riding Hood Red. I put a piece of celery grosgrain ribbon I found in my ribbon jar behind the button. I thought the sentiment from Rosie's Roadshow fit with this unusual stamp and put two dew drops on either end. (I thought it was appropriate to use this stamp as I won it at the WNY SCS gathering I went to in April that was co-hosted by Holly! Thanks, Holly!) I finished it off with a dew drop on the button. I'm really pleased with how this turned out (for 1:00 in the morning!). In hindsight, I wish I had added some Crystal Effects to the tomato to give it some shine and dimension. I have two more cards to share, so keep on reading after the recipe.

Recipe

Stamps: Tomato with Greens (Karen Lockhart), Rosie's Roadshow (sentiment)

Paper: Certainly celery, real red, white, Summer Picnic and Certainly Celery dp

Ink: Adirondack pitch black, copic markers

Accessories: Marvy punches, Nestiabilities, cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder, SU button, ribbon, dew drops, white gel pen, dimensionals, Spica glitter pens

With Sympathy

I have a friend who recenty lost her father. A few days before she had to put down her precious dog, Maggie. So I have two more sympathy cards to share. This one was inspired by Julee Tilman's card. I fell in love with it, so much so that I had to purchase these butterflies, called Fluttering By by Verve Visual, Julee's company. I started by pulling out this new dp from SU called Bella Rose and then paired it with Chocolate Chip and the new In Color Riding Hood Red. The butterfly was stamped on the white piece in Chocolate chip, again on a scrap piece of white, then again on the dp. I paper pieced the butterfly, cut it out and mounted it on top of the one stamped on the white piece (I did this because I did not want to cut out the antennae). The sentiment, from PTI's Mailbox Greetings, was also stamped in Chocolate Chip. When I mounted it on the white card, it looked a little bare, so I ran it throught the Textile cb folder, scalloped the bottom with SU's new scallop border punch, and added a strip of chocolate chip and the dp on the bottom. Dew Drops were added to the butterfly's body and anntenae and on the scallops on the bottom. (I've recently found these dew drops and have been using them quite frequently, as you can see). The inside looks like this. I love this sentiment by River City Rubber Works that I got at my LSS many years ago. The little butterfly is from Verve's Petals and Stems. I have another after this recipe so scroll down.

Recipe

Stamps: Fluttering By, Petals and Stems (Verve Visual), River City Rubber Works

Paper: Chocolate chip, riding hood red, PTI white, Bella Rose dp

Ink: Adirondack espresso

Accessories: Cuttlebug Textile folder, dew drops, SU scallop border punch, dimensionals

Goodbye Four-Legged Friend

This last one is a sympathy card for my friend who recently lost her Dalmatian, hence the black and white. I didn't have a Dalmatian stamp, so I used this one from Whipper Snapper, Sweet Sniffs of Spring, and made him look like a Dalmatian (well, sort of...use your imagination!). The image was colored with Prismacolor pencils. I think I added Crystal Effects to his nose (I don't remember because I sent it out a while ago as soon as I made it). I wanted to make this a black and white card, so I chose this patterned paper from DCWV called All Dressed Up (it's a great pack!). The ribbon (yes, that's ribbon running vertically) is something I picked up in a sale bin at Walmart. I chose to add the red to coordinate with the flower. It needed something else, so I added the paw print.

The thing I like best about this card is the sentiment on the inside. I found it used on a card on SCS a while ago and they mention it was from DRS Designs, so I went right on over and got it. I says "Four legged friends are a very special part of any family. Special thoughts are with you now that you've had to say goodbye." Since I'm a dog-lover, as are many of my friends, I had to have it for special cards like this one. Thanks so much for sticking with me on this long post and please stop by again!

Recipe

Stamps: Sweet Sniffs of Spring (Whipper Snapper), DRS Designs, Stampendous (pawprint)

Paper: Black, real red, white, DCWV All Dressed Up dp

Ink: Adirondack black

Accessories: Prismacolor pencils, ribbon, dimensionals, circle punches, Crystal Effects