Mocha Memories

Square-ling or a Scrap-ling

Whatever you want to call it - These things are too darn cute.  Tanis Giesbrecht on SCS created a challenge before Christmas.  She described the little tag creations like this...

"These little cuties measure 1.25 x 4.25 and are made from the cut off strip leftover from turning a 4.25 x 5.5 card into a 4.25 square card.  They are PERFECT for attaching to a gift or tucking in a small space for someone to find."

I love square cards and I hate waste so this was right up my alley.  I finally had some time to create and was able to share my version of the scrap-ling with my hostess club this past week.

My Love You Much Bundlewas just begging to be used.  I used a small 'strategically' cut piece of the designer paper to create the background.  To emphasize the hearts even more, I created an oval focal point using my Wide Oval punch and Pink Pirouette paper.  The Heart to Heart punch made creating my 'heart balloons' super simple.  I then simply used red colored floral wire and some needle nose pliers to create the 'strings'.

Lots of WOW and dimension but really simple to create!  Check out what I did with the square portion of my card on my next post.......

Be Inspired by Life,

 

Stamps: Love You Much (113756)

Cardstock: Pink Pirouette(111351), Riding Hood Red (111348), Very Vanilla (101650), Candy Lane DSP (113980) 

Ink: Riding Hood Red (111836)

Accessories: Riding Hood Red Taffeta Ribbon (111365), Wide Oval Punch (112082), Pop-up Glue Dots (104183), Heart to Heart Punch (113694), Stampin Dimensionals (104430), Red Floral Wire 

Combined Challenges

Ladies, one of the best ways to be inspired is to use any of the SCS Challenges as a spring board.  No more laying awake at night trying to figure out a color scheme or layout option.

I really needed to come up with a card for a Valentine's Day Swap but was stumped until I came across Sketch Challenge # 159.  The main block image is a single stamp from Sweet Shapes and is stamped with Pretty in Pink.  The hearts from Sweet Shapes were stamped with Purely Pomegranate and then the corresponding outline was stamped with Versamark and embossed with Iridescent Ice embossing powder.  This piece was then mounted onto a piece of Purely Pomegranate cs and then Close to Cocoa cs.  The lower half of the card is Pretty in Pink.  To create some texture without using designer papers, I used a good ol' background stamp, Print Pattern, embossed with just clear embossing powder.  More Close to Cocoa was used a border for this component of the card.  I then used my white gel pen to create highlighting on the hearts as well as give depth to the diamonds on the background.  All of this was then attached to the base cardstock, Purely Pomegranate (one of my FAVORITE colors).  I finished off the card with some wide Chocolate Chip grosgrain.  To add something unexpected to the ribbon, I stamped my sentiment directly onto the ribbon with white craft ink.  The base cardstock is Purely Pomegranate (one of my FAVORITE colors).

After I finished my card, Julia posted a Way to Use It Challenge centered around embossing.  Well, I guess that my ESP was working and I was ahead of the game for once.  Try a challenge or combine two and see what you can create!

SCS - Color Challenge Tuesday

I have been horrible about not participating in the Color Challenges on SCS.  I always look at the information and some of the beautiful creations and think --- 'Tonight will be the night that I will have time to stamp' ----- but generally I end up running kids everywhere and become too tired to stamp.

NOT LAST NIGHT!!  The Color Challenge #115 for this week was Certainly Celery, Old Olive and Vintage Violet.  I love this color combination and I wanted to try to make a card using these colors without flowers in it.  I succeeded without any type of floral withdrawal symptoms (at least so far). 

I started with a sketch that I found on Allison's blog as I was blog hopping this morning.  I used some of the SU! Pallette of Prints in Certainly Celery as the designer paper background.  The edges were sponged in Old Olive to subdue the starkness of the paper.  The butterfly from SU! Perennial Favorites was stamped in Old Olive on more Certainly Celery POP designer paper and cut out.  The Vintage Violet cardstock (used as a layer for the focal image) was also punched four times on each side so that Olive organdy could be added for interest.  I was very hesitant to add the sentiment as the sketch indicated, but was glad I did once it was completed.  It is hard to see but there is a small 'bling' stone in the center of the butterfly ----- thus, the sentiment ------SPARKLE!

Sparkle, shine, amaze.......that describes so many of the bloggers out there.  I am finally getting around to adding my list of blogs I visit.  Check back frequently, as this group is sure to grow. 

Be ready to be inspired!

Lost Track of Time - Blame it on VSN

Well, VSN is only partially to blame.  It was another weekend of too many things scheduled in too little time.  To top it off, I had eight pre-teen girls over last night for an end of the year sleepover.  How did I get talked into this?  I have no idea, but I won't be dumb enough to do that twice.  It will take me all day today to recover.  One good thing came out of it all - my daughter did not want her friends to see a messy house so she helped me clean and organize and throw away!  It was amazing!

What is VSN? - You have never heard of VSN?  Splitcoaststampers hosts a Virtual Stamp Night once a month.  Each hour a new challenge is introduced to get the creative juices flowing.  It starts Friday night and lasts until late on Saturday evening. You can participate in one or all of the challenges or just be a lurker for inspiration.  Virtual Stamp Night in May looked like this.  The gallery for the MAY VSN represents cards that are specific to the challenge (keyword identifies the challenge, i.e. MAY07VSNJ) and each card was completed in under 45 minutes.

I was only able to participate in two challenges during the two days.  The first challenge I participated in was hosted by KThaman and was titled 'Quilled Flowers'.  I basic went with simplicity as the quilling itself took the majority of the 45 minutes.  I cut a rectangle out of regular typing paper and used it as a stencil for the background.  The edges of the background are sponged in Perfect Plum and the center in Pale Plum.  The flower itself was created using Quilling Paper I had setting around.  I think it was the perfect beginning to a night of computer lurking.

MelenaPrincess  hosted a 'Blackeyed Susans' challenge in honor of the Preakness.  We had to create a card using mainly Chocolate Chip and Summer Sun as the colors.   I settled on using the last of my Au Chocolate paper and the Chocolate Chip ribbon from my SU! Flirty collection.  I wound the ribbon into a roll, stitched one of the ends together and flared the other end of the roll open to create the Chocolate Chip rose.  I stamped the swirls from the Ladybuds set onto Very Vanilla using Chocolate Chip and Summer Sun. 

I really had a blast even though I only had time on Friday for a little fun.  I will be counting down the days until VSN in June!