Little Odd Forest Inspiration Challenge (IC181)

This is for today's Inspiration Challenge, which was to take inspiration from the Little Odd Forest website {Click here for my inspiration piece}. The sunshine and sentiment are from the same stamp set, but I couldn't find a single cloud in my collection! So, to match the style of the card (and my inspiration), I hand drew the clouds, embossed the paper and then cut them out. The sunshine is stamped on the base, then stamped again and cut out. I also used a Build-a-Brad for a little extra dimension in the center of the sun. My finished card is an itty bitty 3.5 x 3.5".

Ingredients: Stamps: Inkadinkado {Tell It Like It Is}; Cardstock: DCWV {Textured Orange}, Stampin' Up! {Barely Banana, Carribean Blue, Real Red, WW}; Ink: Stampin' Up! {Basic Black}; Accessories: Stampin' Up! {Build-A-Brad, Dimensionals}, White Gelly Roll pen, Cuttlebug EF.

SheetLoad DT Submission Challenge

All week I have been hard at work making 3 cards (+1 beyond the card~which means anything but a card!) for the SheetLoad Design Team challenge. For those of you who don't know what SheetLoad is, it is a wonderful & free online papercrafting magazine. It's an awesome resource and I am so excited about this challenge! They are picking 4 new design team members based on entries such as mine, so wish me luck! Some of these cards may look familiar, as I was also participating in some SCS challenges along the way!

All of my projects are inspired by the April 2009 issue of Sheetload! {Click here to check it out!}
Here is the layout that was my inspiration:

For my first card, I used the sketch exactly as shown above. I stamped and cut out the flower image and added it to the card with dimensionals, to make it pop out from the page.

Ingredients: Stamps: Stampin' Up! {Bodacious Bouquet, Warmest Regards}; Cardstock: Stampin' Up! {Certainly Celery, Brocade Blue, Naturals Ivory}; Designer Paper {Stampin' Up!, Basic Grey}; Ink: Stampin' Up! {Brocade Blue, Certainly Celery}; Accessories: Stampin' Up! {Button Bouquet, Sale-A-Bration ribbon bundle, dimensionals}.

For project number two, I just had to download an adorable Anya digi from the Greeting Farm! This one is a brunette with Copic colored hair! I paper pieced her cap, gown, diploma and shoes with DP from a Simply Scrappin' kit by Stampin' Up! The star embellishments and other DP are from the same kit. This layout is basically the same as the sketch, but I used the Top Note Sizzix doe to create the starry red background shape and better frame the Anya Image. I also paper pierced the Wild Wasabi layer to mimic the piercing in the top note die cut.

Ingredients: Stamps: The Greeting Farm {Graduate Anya digi stamp}, Stampin' Up! {Warmest Regards}; Cardstock: Stampin' Up! {Basic Black, Wild Wasabi, Shimmery White, Brocade Blue}; Designer Paper: Stampin' Up!; Ink: Stampin' Up!; Accessories: Stampin' Up! {stickers, dimensionals, Watercolor Wonder crayons}, Copic Markers.

My third project is one of my favorites because I love ribbon! And this one has a big pretty bow on it. I took the sketch on this one and actually stamped both the image and the sentiment on the same panel, rather than adding the tag to the right.

Ingredients: Stamps: Inkadinkado {Birds}, Stampin' Up! {Small Script}; Cardstock: Stampin' Up! {Pretty in Pink}, Curious Iridescent Poison Ivory; Designer Paper: K & Company {Amy Butler}, Ink: Stampin' Up! {Old Olive}; Accessories: {Green Satin Ribbon, Corner Rounder, Adhesive Gems}.

For the 'Beyond the Card' project, I was inspired both by the sketch, and a project in the April '09 issue by Katie Skiff (Rya's lunch bag). I made this in honor of my kindergartner's tee ball team, the Red Sox. This Batter Ian from the Greeting Farm reminds me so much of my little guy! This is a (party favor sized) kraft lunch bag from Target (you can find them where wrapping paper is). I folded the bottom flap down and embossed the entire bag with a Cuttlebug embossing folder. I paper pieced his Jersey, hat and bat. The baseball is a button from Jesse James and I made the sentiment myself on my computer. The white stitching is "faux"--made with a paper piercer and white gel pen. The flap stays put in the back with a Velcro dot. I'm thinking it will be the perfect thing to hold Cracker Jacks at their team party!

Ingredients: Stamps: The Greeting Farm {Batter Ian digi stamp}, Cardstock: Stampin' Up! {Shimmery White, Real Red, Not Quite Navy}; Ink: Stampin' Up! {Real Red, Going Gray, Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa, Blush Blossom, Not Quite Navy}; Accessories: {baseball button, Cricut, paper piercer, white gel pen, circle punches, Velcro dot}.

**BONUS* BONUS *BONUS*

I was really inspired to see what I could do with this sketch, and I have two other cards that I made and wanted to share. Both were based on the original sketch, but I flipped them, stretched them, rounded them and made them look way different. I just wanted to show that you don't always have to stick to the rules to make a great card!

This first card has been posted once already, but I wanted to explain how I came up with the layout. I took the sketch and reversed it, both left to right and top to bottom. Then where there were rectangles, I made circles and ovals. The two embellishments are the chocolate chip swirls. I love the colors in this one-- definitely in my top three favorite combos.

Ingredients: Stamps: Inkadinkado {Birds}, There She Goes {Crafty Taglines}; Cardstock: Stampin' Up! {Caribbean Blue, Chocolate Chip}; Ink: Stampin' UP! {Caribbean Blue, Chocolate Chip}; Decorative Paper: K & Company {Addison}; Ribbon: Stampin' Up! {Chocolate Chip Taffeta}; Die: Sizzix.

The second card is simply turned horizontally and since the background paper is so ornate, I decided to use only a background stamp and sentiment and let the fancy paper do the talking!

Ingredients: Stamps: Stampin' Up! {Touch of Nature, Looks Like Spring}, Carsdstock: Stampin' Up! {Basic Black, Shimmery White}, DP: Basic Grey; Accessories: black grosgrain ribbon, black brads, paper piercer.

Thank you so much for stopping by!

And thank you SheetLoad for such a great challenge!

Make Yourself at Home (LSC217)

So today's limited supply challenge was to take inspiration from the colors of a room in our house. It took me a while to decide on one, but I went with my craft room, which has walls painted Caribbean Blue, and chocolate brown carpet.

Ingredients: Stamps: Inkadinkado {Birds}, There She Goes {Crafty Taglines}; Cardstock: Stampin' Up! {Caribbean Blue, Chocolate Chip}; Ink: Stampin' UP! {Caribbean Blue, Chocolate Chip}; Decorative Paper: K & Company {Addison}; Ribbon: Stampin' Up! {Chocolate Chip Tafeta}; Die: Sizzix.

Voila, Soup! (SC224)

We've been out of town for the Easter Holiday for the last week and I apologize for the pause in posting! I know you have all been sitting on the edge of your seat just waiting to see what I'll post next, and this pause must have been just awful for you (ha!). At least that is what I tell myself to make myself feel better about myself. Myself is feeling good now, thank you!

This card is for the SCS sketch challenge SC224. My card isn't showing up in the gallery, but hopefully I'll get that worked out soon! I used two different techniques on this card. #1 Paper Piecing (on the chef's pants and the silver platter). #2 Out of the Box (on the part of the tray that extends past the white cardstock). I linked Beate's awesome paper piecing tutorial above, but I'm still on the hunt for a good tutorial on the out-of-the-box technique. Basically to do that, you decide on the size of the cardstock you are going to stamp on, and rather than cut an image off to fit in it, you mark spots to make straight cuts to, then cut around the image itself to make it pop out of the box. I know that was a horrible description, so when I find good how-to, I'll pass it on!

Supplies: Stamps: Stampin' Up! {Voila}, Inkadinkadoo {Socialize}; Cardstock: Stampin' Up! {Basic Black, Whisper White}; Ink: Stampin' Up! {Basic Black, Blush Blossom, Real Red}, White Staz-On; Accessories: Stampin' Up! {Black Brads, Dimensionals, Silver/Gold Paint Pen}, Aluminum Foil.

Splitcoast Challenge SC223

This was today's sketch challenge on SCS!

Supplies: Stamps: Inkadinkadoo {Girlfriends}; Ink: Stampin' Up! {Old Olive, Basic Black, Close to Cocoa, Blush Blossom, Certainly Celery, Rose Red}; Cardstock: Stampin' Up! {Certainly Celery, Old Olive, Apricot Appeal, Whisper White, So Saffron}; DP: Paper Pizazz {Green with Circles}; Accessories: Liquid Applique, Circle Punches, Ribbon}