The Pink Petal

March Class

2012-01-21T19:23:00.003-06:00

I just finished up my 3 cards for the class I'm teaching at the local scrapbook store using some of the new Hero Arts stamps and some coredinations paper. This first one is a cute little owl all in pink, isn't she cute.

I just loved this tulip stamp they're so cheery and give hope for spring.

And this last one is a little bit older Hero Arts stamp, solid flower. I've had it in my stash for awhile and this is the first I've used it, love it.

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Another January Class

2012-01-07T21:21:00.003-06:00

I have another class on Jan. 17th and these are the cards I made up for the class, a couple winter birthdays and valentines.

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Key Chain Mini Album

2012-01-02T22:15:00.003-06:00

I made this key chain for my niece, she has it clipped to her diaper bag. I love how it turned out & the kids are pretty cute too :) I'm thinking I need to make a bunch more of these, got lots of ideas for them.

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January Card Class

2012-01-01T21:40:00.002-06:00

Just thought I'd share the cards I did for my class this month. I used the Authentique Gathering papers for all 4 cards. I also offer the cards as a kit for you to make, the 4 cards are $10.00 + shipping.

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Some more Christmas cards

2011-11-10T22:43:00.004-06:00

Yes I've been slacking off on posting my daily Christmas cards

so here's a few. This is a class I'm doing on Tuesday.

This card was made with a Northwoods stamp colored with Copic markers than glittered.

I used a clear set of Stampendous snowman stamps for this quick card then colored them with my Sakura Starburst gel pens.

This guy was so cute, I couldn't pass him up, he's a Northwoods stamp also. I love the cardinals. I colored this one with Copics then glittered it. My Martha Stewart icicles punch was a perfect fit for this card.

Another simple card. I used the Hero Arts pine branch stamp & colored it with Copics. The cardinals are Heartfelt Creations stamps which I stamped and colored with Copics then cut them out and glittered the card.

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Easy Canvas Prints

2011-11-07T22:14:00.002-06:00

I recently received a canvas print from Easy Canvas Prints The process was very easy to navigate, the hardest part was choosing a picture to have done :) I was pleased with the canvas, I only wish I would've ordered a larger one I ended up with a 16x20 print. The quality is very nice and I had it in no time at all. If you're ever considering canvas, I highly recommend Easy Canvas Prints. They often offer deals so be sure to check them out frequently.

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Deer & Snowman

2011-11-03T20:05:00.003-05:00

I'm not typically a big colorer & try to stay away from stamps that need much coloring but lately I have been intrigued with Northwoods Stamps. There really wasn't too much coloring with this one and the glitter really adds a lot.

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Another Simple Card

2011-11-02T21:15:00.003-05:00

Here's another super simple card. I had a class tonight and this was one of the cards they made. I called it the 2 minute card because it is that simple. You could totally whip up a ton of these for your cards but I don't like making multiples of a card. I had this Tim Holtz embossing folder for about a year before I finally used it. Here it is

Mirror card is hard to photograph so this pic is kinda funky but you get the idea.

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Simple & Quick Christmas Card

2011-11-01T22:19:00.004-05:00

There's no denying my favorite tool for card making is my Cuttlebug, I love that you can make simple cards in no time and they look fabulous. For this card I used the holly embossing folder, colored the berries red, used my brayer and a glue pad to add adhesive to the embossing then sprinkled glitter over it and mounted it to a piece of mirrorcard. To finish the card off I used my scor pal to put two score lines at the bottom of the card. Best part of this card, it can be mailed for .44. I always have a hard time with that.

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A Month of Christmas Cards

2011-11-01T15:48:00.003-05:00

If there's any of you left out there that read my blog :) I have decided to try to get back into my blogging this month and share with you a Christmas card a day for this month. I'm in full blown Christmas card making for my own stash and for the classes I have been teaching I thought I might as well share them on my blog too. I'll post my first card this evening so stay tuned :)

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The Pink Elephant Challenge #100

2011-05-15T19:22:00.006-05:00

Hey everyone, I am still around :) I've been MIA from my blog for awhile as I have been spending a lot of time with family. The end of March my nephew was killed in Afghanistan so it's been a busy & emotional past couple months. He was buried in Arlington and we got to go there for the burial, what an honor. He is greatly missed. Through this I have realized how much I have taken the freedoms of this country for granted and those that sacrifice for us every day.

Other things I have been doing is teaching classes in my home and dying ribbon and selling it on etsy and my website The Pink Petal Designs I would like to get some other things to sell on my site too so in the near future I will be carrying some scrapping and card making supplies along with card and scrapbook kits.

Here is a sample of my ribbon that I dye, this one is a new favorite color "robins egg".

I had the honor to sponsor the challenge this week with my ribbon at The Pink Elephant Challenge and will be offering a buy 3 get 1 free sale on my ribbon for the rest of the month. So be sure to pop over there and check out what the girls have done with my ribbon this week. I also created a card for the challenge.

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to either check out my etsy page or website if you're interested in purchasing some of my ribbon!

A Birthday Card

2011-03-22T10:12:00.004-05:00

I really haven't been sharing much, I guess my blog has been on the back burner. So I thought I'd share a card I made in January for my mom's birthday.

I created a collage of stamping for the background using a Hero Arts definition stamp and butterflies, the damask stamp is from Memory Box. I LOVE the collage look! I also used the Hero Arts Envelope Pattern background stamp for the background on the floral image. That floral stamp is also Hero Arts called Flower Swirl Vine which happens to be 25% off this week over at Hero Arts I colored the flowers using my Copic markers. That ribbon bow is made from my Mint Leaf Hand Dyed Ribbon that I have for sale on my website. I also used some Core'dinations cardstock for my card, I just love that stuff!

Keep checking back, I have some fun stuff planned for April with lots of giveaways & you won't want to miss out on that!

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Neglected

2011-03-02T21:51:00.003-06:00

Yes, I know I have neglected my blog I've been too busy posting on my Facebook business page and website to come over here and post. My little business is actually off to a good start. I thought I'd share the cards I will be doing for my next class next week. Some of them are repeats from ones I've done on my blog before so they'll look familiar. The class is a masculine class with 6 cards.

Here they are

Howdy Strangers!

2011-01-16T19:04:00.006-06:00

Wow has it really been over a month!?! I have been neglecting my little blog while I have been stepping out into my new little venture this year. For quite awhile now I have been thinking about teaching scrap classes out of my home, well last month I got a phone call from a lady that takes some of my classes at the lss and she's got a group of 6 ladies that get together to take classes and they need a teacher to teach them. So I took that as a sign that I needed to give this little venture a try. So I have been busy getting my little scrap studio all set up and ready to give this a try.

Now, I have a little something to share with you today. My lss just got in some yummy October Afternoon paper that was calling my name so I paired that with a Hero Art flower stamp and created this little card. I also used a sketch from Sassy Lil Sketches (lovin' their sketches) for the design for my card.

Here's the sketch

And here's my card

TPE Winter Wonderland

2010-12-13T08:52:00.002-06:00

Because of the busy holiday season we are only having one challenge this month at The Pink Elephant. All the teams created something with a Winter Wonderland theme. That is actually a perfect theme for around here, our area was hit with 15" of snow this weekend so everything looks like a Winter Wonderland around here. I decided to scrap a photo from the photo shoot my husband did last week with my nephew (who is home on leave) and his girlfriend.

Be sure to head over to The Pink Elephant to check out what the rest of the team made.

Ella's Pink Scrapbook #28

2010-11-11T08:32:00.003-06:00

It's time for another scrapbook challenge over at The Pink Elephant This week's challenge is a color challenge; red yellow & blue. I'm still working at those Alaska pages & Im still on my daily index pages. So that's what this layout is, it's from our day at port in Juneau. You can't really see it in the circles at the bottom but it says day 5 and June 23 I did the numbers in a lighter ink and the camera didn't pick that up. I've been taking on a pretty simple style with my layouts lately, I think it takes me longer to do a card then a layout these days.

Be sure to head over to TPE to see the other design team work and if you decide to participate we'd love to see your work too!

A Quick Christmas Card

2010-11-06T17:03:00.003-05:00

Hero Arts was doing a 90 min. scramble challenge this afternoon. They announced what you had to do for your card and you had 90 mins. to create a card. This challenge was to create a card using a non traditional Christmas flower. I immediately thought of my new Tattered Florals die I got. I cut those out of some tissue paper then stamped them with the Hero Arts script stamp with Vintage Photo dye ink. I then sprayed it with spray adhesive and sprinkled on some mica flakes. I used the Hero Arts Fabulous Flourish as my background image using the Mahogany dye ink then rubbed some Vintage Photo onto the background too. I topped the card off with a Hero Arts sentiment adorned with some twine, and a snowflake with a little jewel in the middle of it.

Here it is, I finished it in about 1/2 hr, well within the 90 mins! Love the scrambles they do.

Now it's off to do a little bit of scrapping before heading out to some friends for the evening.

Tutus and Party Hats

2010-10-21T22:21:00.004-05:00

My great niece recently celebrated her 1st birthday and I had great fun making her gift! What little girl doesn't like tutus? Well ok, maybe she wasn't as excited about it as we were :) And I just couldn't resist making a cute little birthday hat. So here's some pics from the event.

Here's the tutu and party hat, cute I know!

And a close up of the party hat

Brinley showing off her new tutu (she actually wasn't real excited about it, but it's so cute!)

And Brinley in her party hat. She wasn't very excited about this either, she didn't keep it on very long.

There you have it, a cute girl, a cute tutu and a cute party hat!

I've been thinking about making up some of those cute little party hats to sell in my etsy store. Of course I think about a lot of things but real life seems to always get in my way of my fun crafty life.

Ella's Pink Scrapbook - Challenge #26

2010-10-13T22:47:00.002-05:00

This week's challenge at The Pink Elephant is a Child Theme challenge. I decided to scrap another layout of my sweet little great niece, she's such a doll & it's fun doing the girlie pages.

Be sure to stop on over to TPE to check out the rest of the Design Teams work.

Some Christmas Cards

2010-10-10T11:54:00.002-05:00

I was working on some Christmas cards for a class I have coming up in November and decided to just make a bunch and choose 3 from what I made. These 3 are the ones that aren't going to be done for the class. Lately I have had 2 manufacturers that I just love love love, Hero Arts & Tim Holtz. These cards showcase that.

This first one was a pretty simple one using some Hero Arts stamps. I love the black, red & white combo.

Another Hero Arts stamp, I did the emboss resist technique with this one where the stamp is embossed and then I rubbed the Tim Holtz dye ink over the images. I also used my cuttlebug for this one, my #1 go to tool for cards! The other thing I am loving right now is the wrinkle ribbon (hand dyed seam binding) looooove this stuff!

And lastly is this ornament card, not sure Im digging this one so much. I used Hero Arts again (love the music notes background) some Tim Holtz dye inks for the background and then some crackle rock candy. The ornament is cut out from grungeboard (love), crackled then inked up with some alcohol inks. I got impatient waiting for the paint to dry so I used my heat gun which gave the effect of the deep crackles, I think for this application finer ones would have been better.

That's it for now. I have a birthday party for a special little girl (my great niece) who just turned "1" & Im hoping to get some cute photos of her with some things I made for her so I will share that later on.

2010-10-07T22:29:00.004-05:00

Im recovering from a little weekend getaway to Door County, and what a beautiful place to visit! We stayed at a B&B, did some sight seeing and shopping. I can't wait to go back! I did score some goodies at a craft sale that was going on at a church there. I picked up two good sized bags of vintage trims, ric rac, and seam binding. I'll have to get a pic of them to share so you can all drool :) I can't wait to use some of them on some cards and layouts.

I thought I'd share a card with you since I have been bad about sharing lately, we'll see if I can do a little better with the blogging :)

Ella's Pink Scrapbook Challenge #25

2010-09-29T23:01:00.003-05:00

This week's challenge is a recipe challenge; use the color light aqua, a patterned paper and embellishment. I chose to do a page of my sweet little favorite great niece (I can say that cuz she's my only great niece). I spritzed my paper with some glimmer mist in the two corners and also used it on my aqua flowers. This photo doesn't show the title very well, I'll have to see if I can get a better photo later. It says "princess Brinley" and that she is :)

Be sure to check out the rest of the design team's layouts at TPE

The Flood of 2010

2010-09-26T20:43:00.006-05:00

We have been hit with a flood here. Fortunately where I live we weren't affected, my parents have lots of water down by their dock and will have some clean up to do they live on a hill so their home wasn't affected. Unfortunately there were a number of people evacuated from their homes because of the flooding from the Wisconsin River. They're calingl this the 100 year flood so it was something magnificent to see.

This first photo was taken Thursday evening after we had received about 6" of rain, we were thinking at this time the river might rise a little bit more than it was at this point

This was Saturday morning, my dad was checking things out, hoping the river had crested, it hadn't yet.

And this was Saturday late afternoon pretty much at crest.

We drove around Saturday and took some pics, this is a stranded car at a gas station under water. The river is actually way in the background way out past the yield sign.

One of the damns with the water just roaring.

A couple of businesses along the river, not a good situation for them.

This was one of the bridges that was kept open, there's another one just up the river a bit that was closed.

The river is receding and now it's time for clean up and recovery. It's unbelievable how much can happen in a weekend.

Ella's Pink Scrapbook Challenge #24

2010-09-15T22:40:00.002-05:00

It's time for another challenge over at The Pink Elephant. This week's challenge was a Back to School Theme challenge. This one was a bit of a challenge for me because we don't have any children, so I dug into the archives and found a class picture from grade school and decided to scrap that. This photo was fun to look at, I was able to actually pick out a few of my classmates. I'd love to have them all written down. I also used some of The Cutting Cafe Back to School digital images on my layout.

Here's the layout (the photo is a bit discolored from being in one of those magnetic photo albums)

Ellas's Pink Scrapbook #22

2010-08-26T09:27:00.002-05:00

This week's scrapbook challenge over at TPE is a color combination & sketch challenge. We created layouts with the colors green, yellow & white along with this sketch

I will admit I have been struggling some with getting my layouts completed and putting them off til the last minute. I had a completely different layout in my mind for this challenge. I was going to do some pictures from the balloon rally I was at this past weekend. After digging through my paper I came across some Reminisce monkey paper that I have had for awhile which was perfect for this challenge. So, I went through my pictures and found some cute photos of my great nephew to use. I think the saying I found in the sticker set is rather fitting "Sitting Still Is Not My Thing". This layout was super quick and super easy which is usually not how they go for me :) the style is simple, I had a hard time not adding more stuff, I think it turned out ok though.

Be sure to to stop on over to The Pink Elephant to see what the rest of the design team came up with.

A Hoot of a Birthday

2010-08-21T10:44:00.003-05:00

I picked up the sizzix owl die and couldn't wait to create something with it. I picked up some mini composition books the other day on sale so I covered one of them and put this cute little owl on it. Cute as this little book was and how much I wanted to keep it myself I decided to give it to my niece for her birthday.

I needed to make my niece a card too so I put this one together to go with the little notebook. I love this owl, love the October Afternoon paper and love the dyed seam binding ribbon. Don't be surprised if you see lots more of these items in my projects :)

A Christmas Card

2010-08-19T20:55:00.002-05:00

The new Hero Arts stamps have arrived at my local scrapbook store & I just had to get my hands on some of them along with a teacher's set for me to use for an upcoming class. I started playing around with them along with some Tim Holtz distress inks. I think my favorite stamps from this Christmas catalog are the music background and the fabulous flourishes. I love the old aged feeling of this card along with the dyed seam binding and vellum music.

Check back later this week, I've got some other creations to share with some more Hero Arts Christmas stamps.

A Masculine Birthday Card

2010-08-15T17:04:00.004-05:00

I have a masculine birthday card to share with you today, this was one I made for my brother's birthday last month. I come from a family of car fanatics so this Great Impressions stamp was a must have. I used some core'dinations cardstock on this card, I love this stuff when I want some extra texture on a card.

Ella's Pink Scrapbook Challenge #20

2010-08-11T22:35:00.003-05:00

I've got a layout to share this week. I've been slowly getting back into some scrapbooking again. It's been so hot that being in my scraproom in the basement is a nice way to keep cool.

This week's challenge is a sketch challenge along with some fabric on our layout. Here's the sketch

I decided to scrap some more photos from our Alaskan Cruise last year. I had some burlap laying around that I decided to use as my fabric, I just stitched it onto a piece of cardstock.

Head on over to The Pink Elephant to see the rest of the design teams work.

I've been working on a bunch of cards lately along with some class work that I'll share with you a little later on.

Ella's Pink Scrapbook - Challenge #17

2010-07-21T22:59:00.003-05:00

Hey everyone, Im back with another layout this week for The Pink Elephant Challenges. This week's challenge was to use some memorabilia on you layout like old ticket stubs or brochures or menus that you've picked up to scrap along with your photos.

It's been another crazy week for me so I pulled out an old layout I did awhile back from our honeymoon. We visited a muscle car museum in Sieverville, TN. I thought the brochure was so cool with all the pictures of the muscle cars on it that I used it for the top and bottom borders of my layout. It's a simple layout as were most of the pics from the museum (how much can you do with TONS of car pictures lol).

Here's the layout

I am really really hoping to get back into a scrapping routine soon so I can get more accomplished and share. Be sure to check out the rest of the teams fabulous layouts this week at The Pink Elephant

I'm still here :)

2010-07-13T21:49:00.003-05:00

Things are starting to settle down now for me, our duplex is remodeled and rented and the other unit is also cleaned up, painted and rented too! Now I get to do all the stuff that piled up during the month of working on the rentals like house cleaning, gardening and cleaning and organizing my scraproom!

I did squeeze in some time to do a layout for last week's TPE layout challenge and a birthday card too. Hopefully I'll get caught up now and get back into some regular scrapping.

Ella's Pink Scrapbook - Challenge #11

2010-06-09T23:30:00.000-05:00

This week's challenge at TPE is to use black & white photos with any color combination. I decided to do another page for my Alaska album. The pics are from our first formal night on the ship. I wanted to get a two page layout done but that didn't happen this time so that'll come later with pics of the rest of the gang. When I saw the chandelier paper at the lss I just had to have it, didn't know what I'd use it for but I had to have it lol. It was just one sheet and I didn't get any coordinating ones so I had to make the best of it. I added some stickles to my title & the stamped flower border to match with the glittery chandelier. The little spoons & forks are little brads, aren't they cute!

Be sure to head on over to The Pink Elephant to see all the fabulous samples the rest of the design team made.

I probably won't have much to share the next couple weeks since we're working on one of our rentals but one never knows I might dig something up to share.

Some Masculine Birthday Cards

2010-06-08T22:12:00.003-05:00

My nephew turned 17 last week, I can't believe my sister's youngest is 17 already! So I had to get a card made for me to give him and for my mom to give him. Teen boy cards are so hard to make but I think I pulled it off and word from my sis he was impressed :) Here's the one my mom gave him.

And this is the one I gave him using my new embossing folder. I saw the Tim Holtz set with the wood grain and just had to have it & wanted to try it out right away so this is what I came up with.

I'll be back late tomorrow night with my layout for Ella's Pink Scrapbook challenge.

Shabby Vintage Birthday Card

2010-06-04T22:30:00.004-05:00

My mom needed a birthday card for her sister (my aunt) so I started off with a Hero Arts stamp I recently got that I've been wanting to use. At first I struggled with the card coming together but I really like the way it turned out, a little shabby, a little vintage. I made a flower out of tissue paper (like my previous layout), Im loving these tissue flowers. I used my spellbinders scallop circles (3 sizes) to cut the white tissue paper and then stamped them with a script stamp. I also added a bit of dyed crinkle ribbon (made from seam binding). Love this ribbon too, I could use it on everything :)

TPE Ella's Pink Scrapbook Challenge #10

2010-06-02T23:30:00.000-05:00

This week's challenge is to use this sketch with stamps on your layout.

I decided to scrap some pictures from this weekend. My family got together for my great nephew's baby dedication. He is now 8 months old and the last time most of us saw him was when he was born! We had to get the 4 great grandkids together and take pics of them with my parents. It looked like the paparazzi with all the cameras shooting pics.

I just used some paper I had from an old paper pack I got from walmart for my layout. I used some Hero Arts stamps for the pattern on the yellow cardstock. The date is also a Hero Arts stamp and also the punched border was stamped with Hero Arts dots background. I made up some flowers to go with the layout out of tissue paper, love these flowers and how thrifty they are. I wasn't sure I liked the layout when I was done but it's growing on me now. This weekly scrap challenge is kicking my butt because Im still not comfortable with scrapping. It'll get better.

Be sure to stop by The Pink Elephant to see the rest of the design teams work!

I've got a couple more cards to share this week too so stop back later!

A Graduation Card

2010-06-01T22:31:00.003-05:00

I've been making some birthday cards & had a graduation card to make too so I'll have some things to share this week along with my layout for Thursday's TPE challenge.

My husband is away in MI for his niece's graduation. I sent this card along with him for her. I did the card in her school colors. I designed everything with MS Word and hand cut the 2010 & hat. I could've done it with my cricut if I had SCAL program. The "Congratulations" background was done on Word too. The report from MI was she liked it :)

TPE Scrap Challenge #9

2010-05-27T20:46:00.003-05:00

Hello everyone, Im sorry Im late with my scrap challenge this week, it has been a very rough last couple days. We had to put our 13 year old chocolate lab down this morning and it's just been an emotional day actually month as far as that goes.

On to my layout, the theme for this week's challenge is a summer theme. I decided to dig out some of the pictures from the fun we have on the river at my parent's house every summer. We have some great family fun there on the pontoon boat and the waverunners and playing on the sandbar.

Be sure to head on over to The Pink Elephant to see all the fab layouts the design team did this week.

TPE Scrap Challenge #8

2010-05-19T23:30:00.003-05:00

It's time for another layout challenge at TPE. This week's challenge is a sketch challenge.

For my layout I turned the sketch. I am slowly scrapping our Alaskan cruise from last year. I am doing a title page for each day with snippets of the day's events. This layout is from our first port of call to Ketchikan. This is only my 4th page I've done of the trip, I need to get my rear in gear :) We're coming up on a year since the trip.

Be sure to head on over to The Pink Elephant to see all the great creations from the rest of the design team! And if you decide to play along with our sketch this week we'd love to see what you've done so be sure to link your creation over at TPE!

For my layout I just used 3 different cardstocks in red, blue & kraft. I stamped the kraft squares with the Hero Arts wood grain stamp and the red squares with the Hero Arts dots cling stamp. I cut out all my lettering with my various cuttlebug alphabets then embossed "Ketchikan" with my swiss dots folder. The totem border was a sticker I had from an Alaskan sticker set. A simple easy layout.

A couple cards

2010-05-16T10:50:00.003-05:00

For those of you who browse my blog to take a peak at my cards I actually have a couple to share with you today :) Life has been busy the past couple weeks and a lot of my spare time is now spent in the yard/gardens rather than scrapping so I haven't had much time to make things. I've also been bad about taking pictures of my projects after I'm done. I'll try to get better about that :)

I've been getting lots of inspiration over at the Hero Arts Flickr group lately, I'm not sure that is such a good thing because I have found lots and lots of stamps that I felt needed to be added to my stash. So, my two cards I have to share with you today are from Hero Arts stamps.

I layered two different stamps to create this card, wild flowers and silhouette grass and then added some stamped butterflies. Isn't that grass stamp fabulous! I love it, you can whip up quick simple cards in no time. I have some others I will share later using that stamp.

I am in love with collage stamping right now. I used a number of Hero Arts stamps and a couple others to create this card. One of my favorite stamps from Hero Arts right now is they hydrangea, love love love that stamp and I've got some other cards that I've made using it that I will share at a later date. I have gotten so much inspiration from HERE and HERE with collage cards, these women create some beautiful cards. And actually this card is one that I scraplifted from Carole, so I can't take credit for it at all :)

I'll be back for sure Thursday with a layout for TPE, who knows I might get a chance to whip up some cards to share before then :)

TPE Challenge #7

2010-05-12T23:35:00.000-05:00

This week's scrap challenge at TPE is a color challenge and the color is PINK, my fave! I decided to do a page of my sweet great niece, well she doesn't look so sweet in these pics :) She's going through a phase where she doesn't want anyone to hold her but her mommy. I just had to take advantage of the moment and snap some photos of that big pouty lip. Her dress didn't go with my color scheme so I printed the photos out in black and white.

Be sure to stop on by The Pink Elephant to check out the other Design Team's layouts.

Patterned paper: My Minds Eye

Flowers & ric rac: miscellaneous from my stash

Diecut strip: Cricut Home Accents cartridge

TPE Scrap Challenge #5

2010-04-29T00:30:00.001-05:00

This week's challenge at TPE is to make handmade flowers. I've got 2 different flowers that I've used on my layout. I got the inspiration for the big yellow flower on the Hero Arts Flickr pool (some amazing stuff there btw). I made the flower by stamping the image with my Hero Arts Large Flower cling stamp with versa mark ink onto yellow vellum then embossed it with white embossing powder. There are actually 2 stamped flowers there. I love the looks of it and have a little stash already made up to use in the future. All the little flowers were used from the Kaiser flowers I followed a tutorial here to make them, love the outcome of them so much more than the purchased product, I might even go out and buy more :)

The beautiful subject of my layout is my little niece that my brother and sister in law adopted from Africa. She is delicately sniffing my mom's peony tree blossoms. This was 3 years ago already, time sure does fly.

Be sure to head on over to TPE to see what the rest of the design team came up with this week.

Paper used Coredinations cardstock, vellum and patterned paper from my stash

Cricut swirls are from Home Decor cartridge

Vellum flower Hero Arts Large Flower stamp

Pink flowers Kaiser paper flowers

Punches EK Success large scallop, MS butterflies (3 different ones)

The Pink Elephant Challenge #4

2010-04-21T23:05:00.000-05:00

This week's scrap challenge at The Pink Elephant is to use paint and chipboard. I used some cardboard for the background of my layout and painted it orange, I found the orange was a little bright so I used some Tim Holtz sage reinker mixed with some perfect pearls and water in a mini mister and sprayed the orange. You really can't see it in the photo but it gives a nice shimmer. The title is the chipboard part of the challenge that I painted with Tim Holtz crackle paint.

Here is a close up of the crackle paint, it wasn't completely dry yet but you can see some of the crackle coming through.

Head on over to The Pink Elephant to see what the rest of the team has done this week.

I know I said I was going to show some cards this week, it'll probably be more towards the weekend, it's been so nice here I have been getting some things down around outside.

TPE Challenge #63

2010-04-18T23:05:00.000-05:00

This week's challenge is a sketch challenge, I love sketch challenges :) I had to get a card made for my mom to give to my nephew for his bday (I still need to make the one I'm giving him) so I thought I'd use the sketch for my card. This was a super easy, somewhat quick card. I used my cricut again to make this one, have I mentioned I love my new toy :)

Here's my card

And here's the sketch we used.

Be sure to head on over to TPE to see what the rest of the team came up with.

Check back later this week, I hope to have some more cards posted, I've got lots of birthdays coming up

The Pink Elephant Scrap Challenge #3

2010-04-14T23:05:00.000-05:00

This week's scrap challenge is to make an Easter layout. I picked some photos from last year to scrap, these are my 2 great nephews, Kaiden & Kyron, on an Easter egg hunt, little kids are so cute, it was fun watching them. The younger one put the eggs in his basket and then put them back on the ground then the older one would come and pick them up. They ended up dividing all the eggs up evenly to be fair since the older one had most of them in his baskets. Anyway, onto my layout, I used my cricut again this week, I am loving my new toy! Sorry the pic didn't turn out so great, I tried taking it outside but it was too windy.

Patterned paper: Reminisce

Cricut Cartridges: Home Accents & Home Decor

Eggs were cut from the Spellbinders eggs die

Ella's Pink Scrapbook - Challenge 2

2010-04-07T23:05:00.000-05:00

This week's layout challenge at TPE is a makeover challenge! We're challenging you to take an old layout and give it a makeover.

I went as far back as one of the very first layouts I ever did! This would have been probably the mid 90's. I had gone to a Creative Memories party and that's how I initially got into scrapping. Back then all you need was some markers, stickers, decorative scissors and some shape templates that you trace the shape onto the photo and cut out. Yeah those were the simple times lol. This layout that I made over is from my college days (early 1990's). Unfortunately the photos are not that great and the weird cuts & stickers on the photos posed a challenge. Here is how my layout started out.

And here is the makeover! After trimming out the photos a bit the ended up being kind of small so I decided to group them together. I enjoyed using my cricut for my layout too, I am loving that machine.

Be sure to head on over to The Pink Elephant to see what the rest of the team did this week and we'd love to see your makeovers!

Paper: Best Creations, Bazzill

Cricut Cartridges: Home Accents, Home Decor, Jasmine

Journal box was cut from Spellbinders Labels 8

TPE Challenge #61

2010-04-04T23:05:00.000-05:00

This week's challenge is a theme challenge which is Nature. A perfect theme with spring I think :) Our challenge this week is also sponsored by CC Designs. We had the opportunity to use some of the images from her Spring kit this week.

Be sure to stop on over to TPE to see what the rest of the gals made this week!

I created the cloud background using the Hero Arts cloud stamp, the fence and Laying Nora are from CC Designs, the little butterflies are an MS punch and the tree is from my Camp Out Cricut cartridge.

Ella's Pink Scrapbook - Challenge 1

2010-03-31T23:05:00.000-05:00

Our first challenge for Ella's Pink Scrapbook is to use your favorite technique! Well one of my favorite techniques is distressing & coredinations cardstock is a great paper to use for this. Under the pictures I have two strips of coredinations that I distressed the edges on, ran them through my crimper then sanded the paper.

Im finding the scrapbooking to be a little challenging. For some reason this layout took me hours and it didn't come out the way I pictured it. I couldn't think up a title. The pictures are from an auction I went to with my dad this last fall, he collects old gas pumps and gas station stuff.

Be sure to head on over to TPE to see what all the gals did with our first challenge!

TPE Challenge #60

2010-03-28T23:05:00.000-05:00

This week's challenge at The Pink Elephant is a color challenge, just use pastels. Our sponsor this week is The Cutting Cafe and Regina has given us some fun things to use for our color challenge this week. I made this little Easter treat pail filled with malted milk Robin Eggs mmm.

Be sure to stop on by TPE to see what the rest of the design team came up with this week.

I have another bit of TPE news to share with you. We are starting up a weekly scrapping challenge that I am honored to be on the design team for. I started out this hobby scrapping and somehow got swallowed up into the card making so I am excited to get back to creating some layouts now (which I have found to be a challenge in itself) So be sure to stop on by my blog & TPE's blog this thursday to see our very first layout challenge! Also, if you love scrapping too we're doing a Design Team call for two more designers on the TPE team. You can check out the details for that HERE

The Pink Elephant Challenge #59

2010-03-21T23:05:00.000-05:00

This week's challenge at TPE is a sketch challenge and here's the sketch we used

Here is my card for this week. I used some Sizzix flower dies, Home Accents (I think it was Accents) Cricut cartridge and the MS monarch butterfly punch for my card.

Be sure to head on over to The Pink Elephant to see what the rest of the team did with the sketch this week!

TPE Challenge #58

2010-03-14T23:05:00.000-05:00

Our theme for this week is Spring, something we've been getting a little taste of the past week here in WI!

Our sponsor this week is All That Scraps. The team got to play with some of the new C.C. Design March stamps. Christine has really outdone herself with the March release, these stamps are cuter than ever and you can get all 9 of the Sugarplums Spring Kids set for only $47.60!

For my card I used the Easter Emma image, she is so adorable! I used my new Spellbinders Egg set to create my egg shaped card and created a little Easter egg hunt scene with her on the card.

And here's the inside of the card, kind of simple .

You'll want to be sure to head on over to The Pink Elephant to see what the rest of the Design Team made, they did a fab job this week! You'll also want to head over there to read about some new things coming up with Ella and her friends.

TPE Challenge #57

2010-03-07T23:05:00.000-06:00

This week's challenge at The Pink Elephant is to make a party invite. I used a couple of my cuttlebug folders to create my invite, it was quick and simple. I haven't decided yet if Im going to have a little get together for my birthday this year but if I do, these will probably be my invites.

The inside of the card

Be sure to head on over to TPE to see what the rest of the team made this week.

TPE Challenge #56

2010-02-28T23:05:00.001-06:00

This week's challenge is to add green to your color combo

This week the design team was offered one of the new Puddle Jumpers stamps from Claudia and Company at Die Cuts R Us. These cute Puddle Jumpers were designed by our very own, talented Lori Boyd! There is 3 stamps in all. These images are so adorable and fun to work with.

I got to play with the Daisy stamp which comes with her own little kitten. This week I tried paper piecing my image rather than coloring it. Tina, one of the gals on the team, does this often and I love the look so I wanted to try it out. This card will be going to my niece for her 17th birthday.

You're going to want to be sure to head on over to TPE to see all the wonderful creations by the rest of the design team.

Pink Elephant Challenge #55

2010-02-21T23:30:00.000-06:00

Jodie Mackrell of Bugaboo Stamps
allowed each of us to choose a digi from her store!! I chose the Spring Bird Summer Dress stamp, it was hard to choose just one there are so many fabulous images. You can stop over to Bugaboo Stamps every friday and get a freebie digi stamp so you'll want to be sure to bookmark their site!

Be sure to stop on by TPE to see what the other gals made this week!

Some Masculine Birthday Cards

2010-02-19T09:18:00.007-06:00

These are my cards that I've made for all my the February birthdays. Feb. & Mar. are filled with boy/man birthdays for me. Masculine cards are always a bit of a challenge for me since I love doing the pinks and bling and everything girlie. Most of the men in my life aren't big into hunting/fishing or golfing, so that makes it even a bit more challenging. If I see anything car related though I usually snatch it up. I have also doubled my monthly birthday cards because I gave my mom "a year of cards" for her birthday, so Im hoping I'll have more to share with you on my blog each week.

Ok, onto the cards. This month I have my great nephew's birthday, you so his Thomas card in a previous post. This is the card I gave my mom to give him (sorry the pic is a little dark)

Then I have a nephew's birthday, he's preteen. This is the card I made for him.

Here is the one I gave to my mom to send out.

And lastly I have a brother-in-law's birthday

And here's two other masculine cards I made.

Now I have to get busy with March because I have two more male bdays the first week and then finally I will get to make a girlie bday card!

TPE Challenge

2010-02-14T23:15:00.002-06:00

This week's challenge is to use ribbon. CeCe Designs over at All That Scraps sponsored our challenge this week and we got to use some of they're marvelous images. I literally whipped my card up this week because I had done the wrong card for this week's challenge. I have had a roller coaster of a weekend so I don't think my brain was functioning quite right. Anyway here is my card, simple and sweet.

Be sure to head on over to The Pink Elephant to see what the rest of the design team made.

Happy Birthday Ella (A TPE Blog Hop)

2010-02-09T11:00:00.000-06:00

It's Ella, the pink elephant's 1st birthday! And we're having a blog hop to celebrate!
You should have arrived here from Kellie's blog. If you didn't and want to follow the hop just head on over to The Pink Elephant to start from the beginning.

For the blog hop we got to go back and choose one of our favorite challenges from this past year. I am a sketch lover so I decided to work with the sketches. I actually picked two to share with you!
My first creation is a card for my great nephew's 2nd Birthday. He's a Thomas the Tank fan so I thought he'd like a Thomas card. I used the sketch from week #20. This was a pretty simple card, just cardstock, a Thomas sticker, a little fiber and some embossing. Real quick and simple card.

My 2nd creation I was inspired by Jana Eubank's Chocolate Survival Kit on Cuttlebug Challenges last week and made this chocolate box that I will be giving my hubby for Valentine's Day. I followed the sketch from week #41 to decorate the top of the box.

Here are all the goodies he'll be getting, I do hope he shares with me :)

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you find lots of inspiration through the hop. To continue with the hop head on over to visit Frances Byrne's Blog

TPE Challenge #53

2010-02-07T23:05:00.000-06:00

This week's challenge is Mushy Gushy Valentine.

I picked up the Spellbinders hearts and scallop hearts a few weeks back and haven't had a chance to play with them so I thought this was a perfect theme to use them on.

Be sure to head over to TPE to see what the rest of the team made this week. Also be sure to stop by on Tuesday for the TPE blog hop! There will be A Lot of hopping going on so you don't want to miss it!

2010-01-31T23:05:00.000-06:00

This week's color is Pink!

The design team got to work with some of the digital stamps the were created by our very own
Robin Willis for Squigglefly.
A randomly drawn winner from one of this week's participants will win 2 free digis of their choice from Robin's collection.

Here are my cards I made for this week.

Be sure to stop by TPE to see what the rest of the design team made this week.

Another Cuttlebug Romance Card

2010-01-26T22:20:00.002-06:00

Here's another card from the weekend that I made using my new Cuttlebug Romance bundle set from HSN. The hearts were part of the folder, I just pieced the embossing then cut them out. I just love these new folders, I only have one other one done so far and I can't reveal that til next week but maybe I'll get some more made so you can check em all out on actual cards. I noticed Im in a black and pink mode lately, love those colors together.

New Cuttlebug Chandelier Folder

2010-01-25T22:10:00.003-06:00

I made a bunch of cards this past weekend and had a chance to play with some of the new Romance folders from Cuttlebug. When I saw the chandelier I knew I "had" to have the set :) I made this card using Carol's sketch over at Carol's Sketch Fun I had to add a little bit of bling to the chandelier. I'll share some of the other cards later on this week.

The Pink Elephant & Sassy Studio Designs Challenge

2010-01-24T23:05:00.001-06:00

This week's challenge is sponsored by Sassy Studios and we have a recipe challenge to work with this week. The recipe is pink, polka dots and a bow. I made both of my cards today to also go along with the challenge this week at Sassy Studios which is to use pink and chocolate brown.

My first card I used the Decorate a Cake image from Sassy Studio Designs.

For my 2nd card I used the Sweet Cupcake Carli image and also the sketch challenge at Sweet Stampin Challenge

Be sure to head on over to TPE to see what the rest of the design team did this week.

The Pink Elephant Challenge #50

2010-01-17T23:05:00.002-06:00

This week's challenge is a sketch challenge, here's the sketch we're using this week.

And our challenge this week is sponsored by

My inspiration for my card, my precious 13 year old chocolate lab Amber, was sitting nearby when I was ready to take the pic of my card so I thought I should get her in the picture :) She doesn't seem too thrilled lol, she's usually not that pitiful, I think I had some food nearby or something that she was waiting for and pitifullness helps lol.

Anyway onto my card, I used one of Stampotique's stamps and did some paper piecing with the image on some patterned paper. All the background paper is from Reminisce. I thought this would be a cute card to give someone for a thank you for dogsitting.

Be sure to head on over to see what the rest of the Design Team at TPE made this week using some of Stampotique's rubber stamps.

The Pink Elephant Challenge #49

2010-01-10T23:05:00.001-06:00

Our theme this week at TPE is a Birthday theme

I'd like to thank our sponsor this week, Kraftin' Kimmie. She let us play with some of her new stamps that were just released for our challenge this week.

I was immediately drawn to the Bird Fairy stamp but was intimidated by the details and the coloring involved. I decided to give it a try and after my third try I finally came up with an image I liked. Instead of a card this week I did a gift bag, something I never have enough of in my stash. I always spend all this time on creating gifts and run out of time to package them up cute. The pic isn't too great, the sun had already gone down by the time I was ready to take a pic.

Be sure to head on over to TPE to see what the rest of the design team made this week.

Mini of the Week

2010-01-08T08:02:00.003-06:00

I love mini albums and I'm always looking for new designs for them. I decided that I would share a mini a week on my blog for all you other mini lovers. This week's mini is perfect for a keychain or to clip onto a bag. It has 4 double sided pages to hold 8 pictures. This mini measures approximately 2-1/2" x 3-3/4". What I like about this little album is that it has a little case to protect its pages.

I found the tutorial on how to make this album at splitcoast stampers. If you're interested you can find it HERE
I did make a few alterations to the instructions for my album but it's pretty close.

I used Reminisce pattern paper and Coredinations cardstock for this album. Isn't that monkey paper just the cutest!? I have this little mini up for sale in my Etsy store but I'm thinking I just might have to make another to give my nephew & his wife for their little boy.

If you give this album a try I'd love to see what you make.

First Card For My Birthday Card Challenge

2010-01-06T23:06:00.005-06:00

I mentioned that I wanted to start a Birthday Card Challenge this year. I fail badly at getting Birthday cards made and sent out to family members and friends. I always have these great intentions but I just don't follow through. So this year one of my resolutions was to get my birthday card list ready the first of the month and get them made so they are ready to send out. Actually Im going to work a month ahead so this month I'll make January & February's cards then in February I'll do March's etc. so if I do slack a little it won't be too bad to catch up.

It's a pretty basic challenge just figure out what cards you need to do for the month and get them made AND sent out. I have challenged the gals over at Wisconsin Scrappers to join me, if you would like to join along feel free to share your cards with me by just leaving a comment with a link to your blog. Maybe once things get going I'll over some goodies :)

So for my first card I used a sketch I found online. I love working with sketches, they inspire me. So here's the sketch I used (and I can't remember where I got it from).

And here is the card I have made for my nephew who is turning 19 or is he turning 20? I don't remember lol. His birthday is tomorrow so he'll be getting it late but I will get it out (that's the 2nd part of my challenge, actually mailing it)

Recipe
Stamp: Northwoods
Embossing: Cuttlebug on Coredinations cardstock
Diecutting: Spellbinders (oval and tree)

I just have one more birthday for January, my mother's is the 31st. I'll be posting hers late though because she reads my blog, "hi mom over in warm Phoenix!" :) They're lucky to not have to be in this cold weather in the winter. I'll be working on my Feb. ones too, there's 3 total and they're all male cards.

The Pink Elephant Challenge #48

2010-01-03T23:05:00.001-06:00

2 Designer Papers, 3 Buttons and Snowflakes

This week's challenge is sponsored by Stamp Happens We got to play with some of the beautiful Bo Bunny Snowy Serenade papers and embellishments that Stamp Happens sent us. As soon as I saw the goodies I immediately thought layout. I was hoping to find some great snow pics but the ones I had just weren't right so I still made the layout with the amazing papers and I'll be making another page for photos. So now I have the challenge to get some beautiful pics our next snowfall or while Im out snowmobiling.

Head on over to TPE to see what the rest of the team did this week.

The Pink Elephant Challenge #47

2009-12-27T23:05:00.002-06:00

It's time for another challenge over at TPE! We have another sketch challenge this week which is sponsored by Totally Stampalicious. Here is the sketch

And here is my card using the Old Brawd set

Be sure to stop by TPE to see what the rest of the team came up with this week.

TPE Challenge #46

2009-12-20T23:05:00.000-06:00

This week we have a sketch to use for our challenge. In Style stamps is sponsoring us this week and we got to play with some of their stamps. I used the Swinging Cynthia stamp for my card this week.

Here's the sketch we used

And here's my card

Now head on over to TPE to see what the rest of the design team did with the
In Style Stamps this week.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas with family and friends

Friday Favorites-Birthday Card Organization

2009-12-18T08:37:00.003-06:00

I have been slacking on my Friday Favorites, guess I've been too busy trying to get things done for Christmas.

For the past two years I have been making my Christmas cards throughout the year so I have them all done by November, this has really worked out for me so I've been thinking I need to implement a similar idea for birthday cards (I don't send out anniversary cards but maybe if I get organized I just might). So I've been searching for ways to get organized with my birthday cards. Im even going to do a monthly challenge for the gals on Wisconsin Scrappers, maybe I'll even bring it over to my blog if I get things figured out and organized by the 1st :)

So, as I've been looking around I've found some ideas out there. Nicole Heady has a post on her blog about this with a free downloadable calendar. Here's the post with some ideas. And here's a pic of her calendar. I actually have a notebook with a calendar in it but I just don't seem to use it. So that's my 1st goal, to get something that I will utilize I also like her tip about putting a reminder in your phone to send your cards out. Usually I can get the card made (basically the day before lol) but I never seem to get it filled out and dropped in the mail.

Do you have any tips or anything to share with how you keep organized with your Birthday cards? I'd love to hear/see what you do.

TPE Challenge #45

2009-12-13T23:05:00.000-06:00

This week's challenge is a Christmas/Winter theme challenge. I put together 2 cards and a tag for this week.

For some last minute Christmas card inspiration be sure to head on over to The Pink Elephant to see what the rest of the design team made.

TPE Challenge #44

2009-12-06T23:05:00.001-06:00

Are you getting all your holiday crafting done? It seems like my list just keeps growing and my time is running out. I'll try to share what Ive been creating as I get things done, thing is my family reads my blog so I can't share too much :)

This week's challenge at TPE is to use your favorite Christmas color combo. I love the retro looking colors so I made my card with some lime green, pink and blue. Our challenge this week is sponsored by Your Next Stamp and we got to play with some of their images.

Be sure to stop on over to TPE to see what the rest of the team did this week.

TPE Theme Challenge #43

2009-11-29T23:05:00.001-06:00

This week's challenge at TPE is to use your favorite coloring medium. Our sponsor this week is CC Designs. Since I started purchasing the Copic markers, they have been my favorite coloring medium, Im still a newbie with them but I love how they color. I've also added a bit of glimmer to the images with my glitter gel pens. My first card features the Swiss Pixies Heidi with Ornament stamp, I colored her with the Copics and the ornament was colored with a glitter pen, you can't tell in the photo but I added glitter glue to her wings.

And for this card I used one of the Cookie Crumbs Reason for the Season stamps which I also used my Copics on with a little bit of glitter pen on the star and heart.

Be sure to head on over to TPE to see what the rest of the design team made.

Inspirational Friday Favorites

2009-11-27T08:00:00.001-06:00

While browsing around the web a few weeks back I found a way to make reusable tote bags out of old t-shirts, it's super easy and who doesn't have a ton of old t-shirts laying around. Now I don't know about you but those cheap .99 bags you can buy at the stores with their logo on them just doesn't thrill me so I had to give this t-shirt thing a try, it was so easy and I'll definitely be digging out some more shirts to make lots more. The one I made you can really cram that baby full with groceries and it's so durable, no worries about the bag tearing or anything.

HERE'S a tutorial on the bags.

After seeing the t-shirt totes I recently came across these super cute tank top totes. Now I've gotta give those a try. You can see how she did these HERE

So next time you start stacking up those old clothes to give away or toss, think about repurposing them into something you could use.

TPE Challenge #42

2009-11-22T23:05:00.000-06:00

This week's challenge at The Pink Elephant is a recipe challenge we are to use plaid, any # of brads and no ribbon. Our challenge this week is sponsored by Wildflower Kids and we got to play with the 'Tis the Season digi set. My card features the Lily elf stamp. I also used the candy cane stamp. One thing I love about digi stamps is you can change the size and flip the image and that's just what I did on the strip of paper to create a border. And for the inside of the card I used the "Merry Christmas" sentiment. I have recently gotten a number of new cuttlebug folders so I naturally had to incorporate some of those into my card too. The green paper is the plaid emboss and the red is the candy cane stripe.

Be sure to head over to The Pink Elephant to see what the rest of the team made this week and also be sure to check out the Wildflower Kids Blog to see more samples using these great stamps. To purchase them you can find them HERE

Inspirational Friday Favorites

2009-11-20T08:00:00.002-06:00

This past week I've been perusing the internet for a number of different ideas for lots of Christmas stuff my focus for today's inspiration is brown & blue Christmas decor. After doing the local shop hop the beginning of this month with my mother and seeing these colors in one of the shops its been stuck in my head to switch out my Christams decor. I have a deep orange for my walls in our living room and I have been using red and silver for a number of years, not really a color that really pops it kind of blends in. My mom commented that the chocolate browns and blues would look really nice with the orange and I would agree. So I've been searching around for some inspiration and found a few inspirational photos, it's not a popular combination in Christmas decor so there wasn't a lot out there.

My goal for doing this though is to do it for a minimal fee and try to use what I have by changing its color, we'll see how well that goes. I'll try to keep a tally of my expenses. We don't have a traditional Christmas tree so that'll help keep the cost down and a lot of my decorating is with my Christmas Village plus we have a small house.

Enough babbling :) Here are some pictures of inspiration

These first set of pics I found at The Christmas Faerie

BHG has a slide show of some brown and blue decor it's mostly blue but it's still inspirational. HERE'S the link.

When I was at Walmart the other day they had decorations grouped into colors and there was a nice assortment of brow and blue so I'll be scoring some items from there too.

Challenge #41 Sketch

2009-11-15T23:05:00.000-06:00

This week's challenge at The Pink Elephant is a sketch challenge. Here is the sketch we used.

I made a couple gift tags using the sketch this week. My first one is a snowflake I cut from my sizzix snowflake die and the pink one is from my cuttlebug snowflake die which I embossed with a pink shimmery embossing powder. Then I stamped a snowflake which was embossed with the same powder & then used my circle punch to punch it out.

My next set of tags are also a sizzix die. I cut out some red and green ornaments out of a shimmery paper then did some embossing with my new cuttlebug border embossing folders. I punched out a circle and attached it to the bag and put To & From on it to use as a gift tag. These could also be used as ornaments.

I also have a card to share today for the Wisconsin Scrappers challenge this week. We also had a sketch this week from Mojo Mondays to use. I used the Nora image from C.C. Designs for my card which I colored with my Copic markers then added little snowflakes with my white gel pen. Isn't this Nora image just adorable?! You'll be seeing some more of her and her friends in the coming weeks.

Be sure to head on over to The Pink Elephant and Wisconsin Scrappers to see what the rest of the design teams have done this week.

Friday Favorites

2009-11-14T19:28:00.003-06:00

Im going to start something new on my blog at least for the holidays partly for me to have these ideas on my blog and easy to find and maybe it'll inspire some of you. Ok I know today is not friday but I just decided to do this and I don't want to wait til friday to start :) So for this week I'd like to share a cute way to package up and give a hot cocoa gift. Im sure you could change this up for a tea or coffee lover too. I found this on Lacie's blog This little project is going to go onto my list of things to try and it just might be featured at my Christmas Make and Take Open House.

TPE Challenge #40 Thankful

2009-11-08T23:05:00.001-06:00

This week's theme challenge at The Pink Elephant is "thankful". I decided to make garland/a banner to hang from our fireplace mantle. I used a paper pack I got from SU last year to cover my chipboard letters. I also used the Wildflower Kids Tom the Turkey which I colored with my Copics. I love my Copics but I so need more practice with them. I just attached the letters to twine with small clothesline clips which will make storage minimal.

I had a hard time photographing this because the lighting in our house isn't good so I tried a shot outside too.
Be sure you check out what the rest of the Design Team made this week.

I also have a card to share today that I made for the Wisconsin Scrappers challenge this week. Our challenge was to use primary colors. I also used a Wildflower Kids digital stamp for my card too, I used some delphinium blue flower soft for his hat and scarf.

TPE Challenge #39

2009-11-01T23:05:00.000-06:00

This week's challenge at The Pink Elephant is a color challenge; brown, yellow, neutral and a color of your choice (I chose orange). I stamped my image with the Hero Arts Three Winter Trees and colored them with my Copics then embellished them with the autumn flower soft.

Be sure to head on over to The Pink Elephant to see what the other designers did this week.

CCAYL: One Layer Card Challenge

2009-11-01T08:03:00.003-06:00

Last month I had the opportunity to be on a guest designer on the Christmas Cards All Year Long blog. Well Deanne was in need for a designer for the rest of the year and asked me if I would like to join the team!

Our challenge for Novemeber is to make a one layer card. At first I really had a hard time with this and really didn't know what I was going to create. Well after browsing around the internet my creative juices started flowing and I had a great time with these. They're simple but elegant, sometimes I get so carried away with adding more and more to the card I forget about simplicity. I have 5 cards to share with you today. This first one I used the Hero Arts Bare Winter Trees stamp and heat embossed them. Unfortunately the picture doesn't show off the shimmer of the embossing or the paper.

For this card I took a piece of chipboard and ran it through my cuttlebug to get the embossed framed image. I stamped the little Hero Arts Holly Bird image and colored him with my Copics.

I think this one is my favorite probably because it has snowflakes on it. I used the Cuttlebug and Sizzix snowflake embossing folders for this one and added a little jewel to the center of each snowflake.

I used the Hero Arts Holly Bird on this card too and just scored a frame around him with my scor-pal.

And lastly, this card was made with a sizzix embossing folder with some polar white flower soft and embellished with some Hero Arts and punched snowflakes.

Be sure to head on over to the Christmas Cards All Year Round blog to see what the rest of the design team made.

2009-10-25T23:05:00.001-05:00

This week's challenge at The Pink Elephant is a recipe challenge. Our recipe to use this week is black, hardware and distressing. I found an image online of an old gas station and printed it off. My dad is into the old gas stations and corvettes so I thought this card would be great to give him. I embossed some mirror card paper with the diamond plate cuttlebug embossing folder for the background which I distressed the edges on. My hardware that I used is the Making Memories screws and Hero Arts nail heads.

Be sure to head on over to see what the rest of the team did this week.

TPE Sketch Challenge #37

2009-10-18T23:05:00.000-05:00

This week's challenge at The Pink Elephant is a sketch challenge. I had some fun with this sketch and made 3 cards. I just bought some new Christmas stamps and a halloween stamp that I had to play with. Here's my cards.

I also have a card from the Wisconsin Scrappers Blog challenge to share today. We also had a card sketch this week.

Be sure to head on over to The Pink Elephant and Wisconsin Scrappers to see what the rest of the design teams created.

TPE Challenge

2009-10-11T23:05:00.000-05:00

This week's challenge at The Pink Elephant is a fall theme challenge. Our challenge this week is sponsored by Wild Flower Kids and we had a chance to work with some of the digital stamps this week! I used the turkey for my card.

Be sure to head on over to The Pink Elephant to see what the rest of the Design Team made this week.

TPE Challenge

2009-10-04T23:05:00.000-05:00

We have a color challenge this week at The Pink Elephant. The colors we used are orange, black, white and purple. I chose to make some trick or treat containers this week for any trick or treaters that come to visit this year. I used some core'dinations cardstock on these with some sizzix halloween embossing folders.

Be sure to stop over at The Pink Elephant to see what the rest of the team made.

Guest Designer

2009-10-01T09:05:00.001-05:00

This month I had the opportunity to be a guest designer for the Christmas Cards All Year Round Blog. Their challenge for this month, in honor of breast cancer awareness, is to make a pink Christmas card with some ribbon. I was so excited to be a part of the team this month, even though I don't diligently enter the monthly challenges I definitely follow the blog and get lots of ideas as I am making my Christmas cards throughout the year. You can check out their blog HERE and get lots of ideas for your Christmas cards wish Im sure is very helpful this time of year.

I actually created 4 cards for the October challenge but one I had already shown on my blog a couple posts down as I had used it for the Wisconsin Scrappers challenge this week too. Here are my other three cards.

This first one I embossed some core'dinations paper with the sizzix snowflakes folder, punched out 3 squares with my SU curly label punch, punched out some snowflakes and used my EK success border punch for the edge on the front of the card.

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I think this one is my favorite, I used some glitter bright pink paper for the base added a patterned paper from my stash which I stamped and embossed "Merry Christmas" on which I believe is an Inkadinkadoo stamp. I cut out the big snowflake from my cuttlebug snowflake diecut and used a chipboard snowflake on top of that then a punched snowflake and finally a snowflake jewel. The big pink ribbon is from my stash.

And lastly for this card I dug out some patterned paper and cardstock from my stash, cut out scallop and the circle, which I embossed with the sizzix folder & sanded, from my nestabilities sets. The ribbon is also from my stash. So basically this one was all scrap paper

I hope you enjoyed my pink Christmas cards, now head over to see all the other great cards this month!

TPE Challenge #34

2009-09-27T23:05:00.001-05:00

This week at The Pink Elephant we have a recipe challenge for you all. The recipe is to use dots, punch(es) and a tag. We also got to play with Your Next Stamp stamps for our challenge. I got to use the Bubbly Fun Fhiona stamp set for my card.

Be sure to check out the rest of the Design Teams cards at The Pink Elephant and check out all the fun Fhiona stamps over at Your Next Stamp.

Check back later this week as I have some cards to share with you for a Design Team I will be a guest on.

Wisconsin Scrappers Product Challenge

2009-09-26T23:26:00.003-05:00

This week's challenge at Wisconsin Scrappers is a product challenge and we had to create something using stickers. I opted for a Christmas card since Im still way behind on my cards. I had some snowman stickers from last year that I dug out and used for my card, just the outside snowman is a sticker. Here's my card

Wisconsin Scrappers and The Pink Elephant Challenges

2009-09-20T23:05:00.000-05:00

I have 2 challenge cards to share with you today. This first card is for Wisconsin Scrappers Blog This week's challenge is a card sketch challenge. I'm way behind on my Christmas cards so that's what I made up this week.

Here's my card

And here's the sketch we used

Over at The Pink Elephant we also had a sketch challenge. I made this card with all embossing and core'dinations cardstock.

And here's the sketch we used this week

TPE Challenge #32

2009-09-13T23:05:00.001-05:00

This week's challenge at The Pink Elephant is a theme challenge. Our theme is Back to School. At first I thought was going to be a bit challenging since I don't have any children so Im not really in back to school mode. Then I got to thinking about all the small school pics that you trade with your friends. I dug some of my old ones out and found a handful of them from grade school so I made a mini accordion album with a cute holder for it.

Here's my little project and yup that's a crayon box that I altered.

Here's the album inside the box

And all the pics of some of my friends back in 6th grade.

Hope you enjoyed my little project and I hope it inspired you. This would make a cute little gift for a grade schooler to keep all their friends pics in. I might even make a couple for my nieces and nephews. Be sure to head on over the The Pink Elephant to see what the rest of the team did this week.

TPE & WI Scrappers Challenges

2009-09-08T09:51:00.004-05:00

Wow it's been a busy past few days with the holiday weekend! I hope all of you (in the U.S.) had a fabulous Labor Day weekend! We headed over to MI to visit my in-laws and my dh did a photo shoot for his niece's senior pictures while we were there. It was a quick visit with waaay too much time on the road.

I failed to schedule my challenge posts before I left for the weekend so I am posting them now. This first challenge was for the layout sketch at Wisconsin Scrappers This week we used one of Tamara's Sketches

I did a wedding layout for my mother in law's album that I was frantically working on finishing before we left to visit. I think I put together about 10 layouts in about 2 weeks to finish the album. Now, why I didn't do that right after our wedding I don't know. Oh well it was an album 4 years in the making :) and she loved it.

And then this week at www.thepinkelephantchallenge.blogspot.com we had a color challenge. We had to create something using black, red, yellow and white. I was having a hard time with inspiration for my card so I used a sketch over at Card Patterns to create my card. Even with the sketch I had a hard time trying to get my card how I wanted it. It's not exactly what I had in mind but it finally came together.

Be sure to check out what the other design team members did at The Pink Elephant and Wisconsin Scrappers. Thanks for stopping by today!

TPE Challenge #30

2009-08-30T23:04:00.001-05:00

This week's challenge at The Pink Elephant is a recipe challenge. We had to use 2 squares, a ribbon and something sparkly. I made a christmas card using the sizzix christmas embossing folders for my card this week. I used my glue pad and brayered then sprinkled some glitter over the embossing.

Here's my card

Be sure to head over to The Pink Elephant to see what the rest of the design team did this week.

TPE #29 Sketch Challenge

2009-08-23T23:05:00.000-05:00

This week's challenge at The Pink Elephant is a sketch challenge and we got to use digital stamps from Little Paper Shop you can get their stamps HERE

Here's the sketch we used.

And for my first card I used the Jenna Rain stamp with some Reminisce patterned paper.

I turned the sketch for my 2nd card. I used the Katie Swing stamp with some Making Memories patterned paper and I also used my new Martha Stewart monarch butterfly punch.

Be sure to head over to The Pink Elephant to check out what the rest of the design team did and stop by Little Paper Shop to see all their fun stamps!

Just Rite Preserves-Apple Sauce

2009-08-20T22:57:00.003-05:00

This is my first time using Just Rite stamps! When I saw the preserves set I knew I had to have it to dress up my canning jars to give as gifts. This is a jar of apple sauce from last fall, I used the new Reminisce patterned paper with some Bazzil kraft paper. I really had fun putting this together and can't wait to do my salsa, tomatoes and jams. Im still trying to figure out what to put on the tiny label of the jar image.

TPE Challenge #28 - Summer

2009-08-16T23:05:00.002-05:00

This week's challenge at The Pink Elephant is a summer theme. I've been doing some scrapbooking lately so I have a layout and a card to share today. I used my cuttlebug to make the bubbles on the core'dinations paper and to cut the title. My family spends lots of time playing on the river at my parents' house when we get together in the summertime.

And for my card I made a cute watermelon.

Be sure to head over to The Pink Elephant to see what the other design team members made.

TPE Challenge #27

2009-08-09T23:05:00.001-05:00

This week's challenge at The Pink Elephant is a color challenge. Our colors to use was brown, turquoise and neutral. I used the sketch over at Inspirational Card Sketches for my card this week. I used some of my coredinations paper on my card, the background light blue is embossed with the sizzix snowflake folder and the "Merry Christmas" was embossed with the same sizzix set.

Be sure to stop by The Pink Elephant to see what the rest of the design team came up with this week.

2Sketches4You Birthday Card

2009-08-04T21:07:00.006-05:00

I had a chance to participate in the 2sketches4you challenge this week.

Here is this week's sketch

And here's my card

TPE Challenge #26

2009-08-02T23:05:00.000-05:00

This week's challenge at The Pink Elephant is a recipe challenge and the recipe we had to use is 3 brads, a flower and one patterned paper. I used my new sizzix bird die for my card this week, the bird was cut out of coredinations cardstock, embossed with my cuttlebug textile folder and sanded down. I struggled on placement of three brads for my card then decided to use them all for the center of my flower.

Be sure to head on over and check out the other design team's cards this week and to link your card if you decide to play along this week.

TPE Challenge #25 - Sketch

2009-07-26T23:05:00.000-05:00

For this week's challenge we had the opportunity to use some of Joanna Sheen's stamps. You can see her stamps HERE

This week's challenge is a sketch, be sure to head on over to The Pink Elephant to see what the other design team members did.

My first Alaska layout

2009-07-24T19:11:00.004-05:00

I decided to just scrap whatever I feel like with my AK pictures rather than start with day one. This is towards the end of our trip, a couple pics of one of the lodges we stayed at. I used all core'dinations paper for this layout. I am loooving the core'dinations, you'll be seeing a lot more of it from me :)

TPE Challenge #24 - Animals

2009-07-19T23:05:00.002-05:00

This week at The Pink Elephant we had the opportunity to use some digital stamps by Dustin Pike, you can see his blog which has a link to his stamps HERE he has some really cute stamps and even offers freebies every wednesday if you're interested in giving digi stamps a try. This week's challenge was to create something with an animal theme. I have 2 different cards to share with you today.

For my first card I used the Cupeecake Monkey stamp with some bazzil cardstock and pp from my stash. I added stickles to the sprinkles on the cupcake and the background was embossed with the cuttlebug number collage embossing folder. I had bought a Paper Wishes 3D cupcake template a couple months ago because I just love cupcake stuff and thought I should make one to go along with this card.

And my second card was the owl stamp. I used some reminisce summer fading pp behind the owl and some core'dinations cardstock embossed with the cuttlebug leafy branch embossing folder and I attached a little twig for my owl to sit on.

I made my owl dimensional by adding some pop dots to him

Be sure to head over to The Pink Elephant to see what the rest of the team did, they did a fantastic job this week! And thank you Dustin for these fab stamps!