simon says... anything goes

Are you ready? :)

This week's theme over at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog is Anything Goes! And the product line we all used was none other than Simon's Exclusives! If you have any Simon Says Stamp goodies in your stash, we'd love it if you showed us, but it's not a requirement of the challenge.

So, on to my card for the week:

I like to stamp sentiments "collage style" and make them the focal point of my design. With clear stamps like these, it's easy to just stick them all over one large acrylic block and stamp all at once! I used words from several different sets here... mostly from the BABY and SO BEAUTIFUL sets, but also from HANDWRITTEN GREETINGS and the THANKS sets as well. Inks are all Hero Arts - SOFT POOL, FRESH PEACH, and CHARCOAL. The card base is Hero Arts, too.

So now you're up! Link your Anything Goes project HERE, by 8am EDT next Wednesday (the 6th), and you'll be entered into the random drawing for an amazing gift voucher to spend at Simon!

Also! Be sure to check out Simon's BRAND NEW BLOG, right HERE!

It's bigger and better than ever! :)

Thanks for reading today.. see you soon... xo

a card a day in may - 5/18: CONGRATULATIONS

Hello again, stampy friends! It's FRIDAY... AGAIN. Where does it go?? I know, I keep asking that. LOL Anyway, another ACADIM post. This one is super simple, taking maybe just ten minutes to do. I'm not sure I'm sold on it... what do you think?


I think since making Jen McGuire's baby card, I've got baby cards on the brain! This particular ric-rac image (another new stamp from Impress) is AWESOME... it's 7 inches long, so it completely covers a card very easily! Not to mention that it would work great on scrapbook pages, too. I thought it might look neat stamped kinda like a plaid baby blanket, so that's what I did. The ink colors are a little softer in real life, I didn't have a lot of time to edit the photo. I'm not sure this is quite what I had pictured in my mind's eye when I started this card, but it's what came out. LOL I made a stampy boo-boo over to the left side, so I needed to cover it up with some ribbon. But, I wanted to still be able to see the ric-rac, so I used sheer ribbon. The sentiment is an OLD one from Hero Arts... like, vintage old. ;) I think it's one of the first clear sets that Hero ever put out! I wish I would've stamped it better... oh well.

Whew! That's a lot of chit-chat about a card that I'm not even sure I like! LOL

I hope you have a wonderful weekend and I will see you again tomorrow! Thanks for reading. :)

SUPPLIES
paper: Georgia Pacific
stamps: Impress Ric-Rac Border 3134H and Hero Arts CL047
inks: all VersaMagic chalk inks (Aloe Vera, Pink Petunia, Aspen Mist, Thatched Straw, and Spring Pansy)
other: sheer ribbon unknown

a card a day in may - 5/14: CONGRATULATIONS

Hey, peeps! Here we are... another week, and another A Card A Day In May post. This is just one of TWO special cards I get to share (the other one, meant for yesterday's post, will be put up tomorrow). It's a card for the lovely Jennifer McGuire! She finally had her precious baby girl yesterday (Mother's Day, of all days!), and everyone over at A Blog Named Hero got together to make cards to congratulate her. :) Here's mine:


I knew I wanted to use her favorite color, Pool, so I used the lightest shade in the Pool Layering Papers multi-pack. The Lattice background was heat embossed, and the hearts symbolize mama (red) and baby (pink). :) I'm so happy for her and her family... congratulations again, Jen! xo

Time to hop on over to A Blog Named Hero to see the cards from the rest of the DT! And then I'll see you back here tomorrow... thanks for looking!

SUPPLIES
paper: Hero Arts Mixed Layering Papers (Pool & Blush) and Georgia Pacific (white)
stamps: Hero Arts/Studio Calico #331065 and CL342
inks: Colorbox (Frost White) and Memories (black)
other: white embossing powder, Corner Chomper, Cricut Expression, Cricut 'Plantin Schoolbook' cartridge (for the hearts), and pop dots

Catching Up

Hey, there! :) Long time no chat. Life has been keeping me pretty busy these days. I haven't had the time or the energy to create much... until recently, that is.

I finally got around to ordering everything I couldn't live without from the current SU! catalog (good thing, since it expires in a few weeks LOL), and it was all delivered just in time for the weekend. It's been a fury of stampin' ever since. :D There's nothing like brand new toys to get the mojo goin' again! ;)

As I was taking pictures of my latest cards, I noticed on my CF that there were a couple of cards I had made and photographed some time ago, but never uploaded. Here is one of those cards.

For my super sweet pal, Jenny L. :) She's expecting her third baby soon! (Sorry for the dark photo.)

(Click to see larger.)

All supplies - with the exception of the preggo lady, sentiment, and ribbon - are Stampin' Up!. The lady is of course from the $1 stamp bin at Michael's, as is the ribbon. The sentiment was made with a Stampendous (acrylic) alphabet. I'm embarassed to admit that I didn't put a comma after "Hey"... as a homeschooling mom, I honestly had every intention to do so, but quite obviously forgot to follow through with that intention. LOL

Since Jenny has an enormous amount of willpower and is waiting to learn the baby's gender until birth, (!!!) I tried to go with colors that weren't really gender specific. I'm not exactly certain which ones I used here, but I want to say Lavender Lace, Certainly Celery, and Barely Banana. The BB strip was stamped with the Linen background, which is retiring this year - I can't believe it! The flowers on the card front were stamped with craft inks... not sure what SU! set they're from, however. The preggo lady was colored in with Prismas, blended with Gamsol and a stump, and then shadowed with my #C1 (Cool Gray) Copic marker. I popped her up with dimensionals. The sentiment inside reads: "Hope you're feeling 'swell'!" Heh. ;)

I hope you and yours had a great Thanksgiving holiday! We sure did - my very first Thanksgiving dinner that was entirely done by ME and ME ALONE. And we survived! :D

I'll post my more recent cards soon. Thanks for stopping by! :)

Baby Girl

Here's a card for a friend of mine that had a baby a few days ago. She came about 4 weeks too soon, but was doing so well, that she was able to go home after only three days! :) I get to go see her tonight when I bring Mommy and Daddy dinner to help out. :)

• Stamps: Paper Inspirations (baby), Stampin' Up! (sentiment), and Hero Arts (dots)
• Inks: Colorbox (pigment) and Memories (dye).
• Other: Black embossing powder, Marvy Uchida Giga Square Scallop punch, Offray grosgrain ribbon, and pop dots
  

I had to use the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig (sorry, no link) in order to get the repetitious dot pattern across the card. The baby image actually has a bow on the baby's head, but I didn't ink/emboss that part in order to put a ribbon bow on there for 3-D interest.

I still never got around to making anything for that color challenge over on Two Peas, but that's OK. I will do it eventually, in my own time. ;)

More exciting news - I've finally decided to take the plunge and become a Stampin' Up! demonstrator! :D I haven't offically enrolled yet - my demo (soon-to-be upline!) and I are working on a strategic start-up date of possibly beginning to mid-September. But I am so excited! I've been mulling around the idea for a couple years now, but haven't really been able to devote the amount of time to it that I would want to until now. I'll be sure to make the final announcement here once I'm official! ;)

Hope you have a great day. :)