Kristina Werner's Color Inspiration #36

Well I'm sort of looking for my Mojo today. I have been a blog slacker and having taken such a wonderful break over Christmas, I feel like I need a little help with the ol mojo!

In steps Kristina Werner with another FABULOUS color challenge. I started with a whisper white base and layered pretty in pink on top. I used a wonderful floral background with versamark. I wanted a soft look, so I added some rose red chalk pastel on top of the versamark. I stamped the images using markers, and colored the flowers with pretty in pink. I used crystal effects to drop some glitter in the center of the flowers, then painted them too, to make them shiny. I added some new designer series paper that I got on a preview order and a rubon right on top of the satin ribbon!

Beautiful color challenge Kristina! Thanks for helping me get back in the swing after such a long break!

DCBD 108 ~ New Years Theme

I have to be honest. When I heard the theme for this weeks challenge, I almost bowed out. I really wouldn't make a card for new years. Of course, due to my own hectic schedule, it would have been prudent to skip Christmas and make New Year's cards! :)

For years, we celebrated New Years Eve with the same crew and the past few years, with everyone having children and going in different directions, it just didn't happen. Tonight, wild horses or a foot of snow could not keep my hubby and I from attending a new years party with this same group of friends and all the kids..



Our wonderful host Dave, loves chocolate like no one I know. I mean, he's an addict. I make a special double chocolate and butterscotch chip cookie that he thinks I should market and sell. :) So I made him a few dozen cookies to hoard, and some other cookies for everyone else. I'm sure that he will be excited! So, in good form and what the season means to me. I decorated this tin to put the cookies in. I used the birthday simply scrappin kit Best Ever, but this kit ~ SO ~ works for new years too! I'm really looking forward to catching up with everyone!

Happy New Year!

Even MORE fun with the Love U Much Bundle

I made this card for a swap using the love you much bundle. I punched a hole on either side of the flower and painted the vase with Crystal effects.

I cut that top layer to 2 3/4" x 3 1/4". the scallop punch lines up perfectly in the middle on the short side. I just took caution to see where I needed to punch the long side. Meaning the paper hung over about a quarter inch on the side that I was punching. Does that make sense??

I'm really having fun with these stamps! Thanks for visiting!

More Fun with the Love you much bundle

I'm just having fun with my new toys! I just LOVE the love you much bundle! This is some of the gorgeous paper and one of the images from the set. To make the hearts really sparkle I mixed some crystal effects with dazzling diamonds and painted them on!

It doesnt get much easier than this! With the wonderful images, coordinating paper and punch, what's not to love?

Love You Much Valentine's Class

What better time of year is there to express your love and appreciation to your family and friends than Valentine’s Day?

In this class you’ll create four love & friendship cards, four 3” x 3” friendship notes and 9 tags that can be used when packaging up Valentine’s treats for your kids, teachers, friends &/or co-workers.

The whole collection is packaged in this one-of-a-kind Stationery Purse. Email me at e.selene@verizon.net to sign up for this class. Are you a demonstrator and interested in offering this to your customers? Send me an email!

Love you much promotion 20% off

Stampin’ Up!’s® Love You Much Bundle (item 115405) contains the perfect products to create fun and fanciful Valentine’s Day projects that say "Ilove you" from the heart. And from December 23, 2008, through January 31, 2009, you can purchase the Love You Much Bundle at 20% off the retail value!

Getting Back in the Saddle

I had a wonderful holiday! Got a little blog~lazy too. I just had a lot of fun with family and friends over the holiday break. Yesterday I got a call from my good friend and customer JoAnne. She is going to a holiday swap and 4-5 people are stampers. So, she came by for a gift certificate.

She said that she thinks the stampin up gift certificate will be the hot item and everyone will be fighting over it, so I pulled out my new Game Night stamp set, and stamped a "JACKPOT" on the front! I think getting a SU! gift certificate is like hitting the lottery, don't you? :) I hope you had a great holiday.

I'll be home all day, cleaning the stamp room, which was temporarily converted to an assembly and wrapping space just before Christmas. I hope you and yours had a wonderful holiday! I'll be getting back to regular posts this week.

Selene

DCBD 107 ~ Sending you holiday peace

Heidi sent this week's sketch challenge with a request to do a really nice Christmas card for a Christmas Eve post.

Here is what will probably be the last card of the season. I started with taken with turquoise and added baja breeze and white. The suspended snowflakes are the felt flurries, and the inside "cover" for the snowflakes is white. In order to do a suspended card, whatever you put on your string, has to be symetrical in the back, so I stuck the matching white snowflake to the back with glue dots. I added lots of glitter, both with a two way glue pen and heat and stick.

Wishing you and yours a Very Merry Christmas ~ Thank you for looking. Want to see more? Check out and see what the team has come up with!

Chris Austin
Connie Babbert
Dannie Graves
Dee Tollaksen
Heidi Michel (Mrs Diva)
Jennifer Van Wart
Julie Semones
Kristen Moore
Lisa Freeman
Vivian Swain

Accordion Style Gift Books

I made 4 of these out on Sunday night for someone that my husband works with. I originally designed the books so they would have Santa on the front, but she wanted something that would work year round. So I swapped the image on the front cover for this one.

These books go together very quickly. I took a 12 x 12 piece of cardstock and scored it at 4 and 8" Then I turned it 90 degrees it and cut across the score at 4 and 8". I used sticky strip to assemble the white book base, so that it wouldn't come apart ~ ever.

You want to assemble the three white pieces that you come out with, in an accordion style. and overlap them. So, for three pieces, you will have two 4" square pieces that overlap.

Next, I layered the inside of the book with 3 3/4" squares in certainly celery and old olive and accented with Designer Series Paper. You can really make a TON of these books with a limited amount of DSP, so it's really cost effective.

On the page with the white eyelets, I made a pocket, so a tag with a photo, or journaling could go inside the pocket. Maybe add the photo to the outside, then put a tag inside with the journaling that's hidden. These make wonderful gifts and can easily update aunties, grandparents, or Godparents. Sometimes it's the most simple of gifts that will be treasured the most. This is something that can not be "bought" so to speak... unless of course you want me to make you some. :)

Faux Silk with a POP! Mojo Monday #66 Challenge

Ann Clemmer's technique, Faux Silk Pop is the Split Coast Technique Challenge from Lynn in St Louis today. I decided to play along and combine it with the Mojo Monday challenge from Poetic Artistry.

I have been trying for weeks to come up with a spring card and see if I can get my mojo back for making a floral card. it seems like i've been in holiday mode for quite some time! Anyway, I went with my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE color combination for spring. Apricot Appeal, regal rose, rose red, and artichoke. I used markers to ink up my stamp and stamped it on tissue paper. Then I used a glue stick, to stick it to a piece of apricot cardstock.

For the bling on the sentiment, I used my pliers from the crafters tool kit to remove the bling from the brad casing. The brad came from the pretties kit. I used crystal effects to adhere it, as i thought it was a little small for a glue dot. I added quite a bit of dazzling diamonds with a 2-way glue pen. Here are a couple of close ups. Thanks for looking!

Tags!

I want you to know how much I appreciate everyone who visits my blog and leaves me comments and emails. Each and every comment makes me smile. I hope that in 2009, I can provide some inspiration for you and your creative projects, and I'm sure I'll learn from many of you too!

I hope that you all have your holiday gift giving, all wrapped up so that you can sit back and just enjoy your friends and family. I'll be headed to my sister's house, and there will be about 8 of us. I'm really excited to have some time to spend, and maybe play some board games with the kids and just get caught up.

I for one have been a mad person trying to make sure that I have everyone covered. It's a little challenging this year. We have cut back a bit, and I think the most important thing is not the money, but finding just the right gift for each person. I think my theme for this Christmas season could be summed up by one word "simplify"

I got the house cleaned out and the clutter is gone. If I haven't used it in a year, out it goes! I searched and searched through my things and realized that I have NO Christmas tags left, so I decided to make some! Take a 12 x 12 and cut it into 4 inch strips. I took the three strips i got, and cut them all at once with my Stampin' Up! cutter. I cut the other side at 3" so I got 12 tags out of one sheet of 12 x 12.. If you've got the things hanging around, don't forget to be creative if you need to to get the job done!

I know that I've been a blog slacker, but I will have some fun posts coming this week, so please check back if you can. Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Hanukkah, and any other holiday I missed. If you don't celebrate a holiday at this time of year, I hope you find the time to catch up with the ones you love.

Bloggers Challenge ~ #78 Non Traditional Christmas Colors

I really LOVE making cards that have some sort of twist.. My customers have always told me that they love my non traditional color schemes for Christmas especially. Brown or red Snowflakes are my favorite.

For this challenge I decided to go WAY outside and start with BLACK! If you knew the little girl, Bella, who this care is for, you would know how perfect it is for her!

My daughter talks excessively about her good friend Bella. In fact, she learned how to spell Bella's name right after she learned her own name. Bella loves to dress up and play princess. She's all girl like my Alexis and they both BEG to wear dresses to school, even when the weather doesn't warrant a dress.

So for a pretty princess tree card, I added lots and LOTS of glitter. I inked up the tree in regal rose. All I could think of was a Charlie Brown Christmas, with the big pink tin trees that Charlie Brown passed over.

I added the polka dot background with versamark and regal rose ink. I added heat and stick and dazzling diamonds glitter on top so those pink dots are super sparkly. I used shimmer white cardstock to make it all the more shimmery.. I think miss Bella is going to LOVE her Christmas card. I had an AWESOME time with this challenge. If you are interested in seeing some more non traditional Christmas projects, just click the Bloggers Challenge logo on the right. You can see what the other designers are up to, I know that I (stalk, oh I mean) check them out every week!

DCBD 105 Color Challenge

Another diva challenge, and I have to admit that this week I was in a real rush! I have back to back classes Wed, Thurs, and Friday this week, due to last week's ice storm. I'm feeling the stress a little and not sure if i'll be able to fit it all in. I'm sure I'll get there, but I'm feeling a bit stretched.

I'm glad that these colors just spoke to me! I'm a little burnt out on Christmas cards and I was excited to actually take a break and stamp something else. :)

Want to see some FABULOUS cards with this color combination? Check out the other members of the design team's blogs. I'm sure they will WOW you with their talent!

Selene

Chris Austin
Connie Babbert
Dannie Graves
Dee Tollaksen
Heidi Michel (Mrs Diva)
Jennifer Van Wart
Julie Semones
Kristen Moore
Lisa Freeman
Vivian Swain ~ is in the hospital, please keep her in your thoughts.

Kristina Werner's Color Inspiration #35

Kristina Werner's weekly color challenge was up last night and it is SO pretty! At first I thought that it would make a really pretty spring card. As I got going, with the supplies I have on hand the card changed into a card for my daughter's preschool teacher, to go with her gift for the upcoming holiday. I really had fun with this...

There are a bunch of layers on this card. I punched some textured small stars which are pretty fun, and I used the chocolate rubons that I have.. Actually, there is no stamping on this card at all. I used the pliers from my crafters tool kit to remove the bling brad from it's housing and attached it with some tombo multipurpose glue.
You cant see the glitter in the photo, but the star is COMPLETELY blinged out with dazzling diamonds. I had a blast with this.. The inside of the card reads "you're a star!"

Thanks Kristna for another fabulous challenge! Totally fun.

Mojo Monday ~ A Magnet Card

It's Mojo Monday Time! Julee really has a pretty sketch going this week and I thought it would make a cool ornament card. These ornaments and coordinating paper are all from the holiday collection stamping kit.


First I made the ornament, and really they are SUPER easy. You pop the paper out of the die cut card stock, then pop the chipboard out, which is also DIE CUT, then use the tombo glue (pictured) to stick it together. I put a photo in between the layers and added a regular card stock backing. Then, i added some double sided sticky magnet tape. the sticky side goes towards the card stock and the other is a magnet for your fridge or where ever.. I'll add a note in the card to let auntie know the main element is a magnet! kinda cool, don't cha' think?


Really great sketch Julee. I cant wait to see what everyone else has come up with.

Why Stop There??

I'm having fun now!!! I got this wreath for $5. I got the inspiration from a wreath I saw hanging this morning at the school department that was very minimal, it had a simple red bow on one side, and on the other, an old fashioned decoration that wasnt very big. Other than that, it was just the natural wreath made with christmas tree leftovers.

Take a look below for a close up of my main area. I've already posted, further down a picture of the photo ornament I'm sending this year to family.

Happy Monday!

~Selene

Fun Weekend! Decor Elements and More

I'm sorry that I sort of took the weekend off from blogging, but I had a really great weekend. I had a little time off and got into my house and really cleaned it. I started with my daughters room and realized she drew with crayons on the wall. I broke out my Mr. Clean magic eraser and took care of that... I came into the living room and noticed a scuff on the wall, and it took it off... Well, then I was on a mission. I had painted my walls only a few years ago, but they were all scuffed with black marks from furnature moves, and breaking a hole in the wall for my craft room and more...

So, I scrubbed and scrubbed, and got ALL the black marks off. I was finally able to hang my "home" decor elements that I got as a hostess freebee from SU!, quite some time ago. Then we went and got the tree and decorated it. It only fell over twice!! That's good, right?? The photos do not do this justice, it looks so pretty in real life.

Bloggers Challenge ~ An ornament

I've already done quite a few handmade ornaments and showed them on my blog already this holiday season.... At the bottom there is a picture of my charlie brown Christmas tree. We are in need of some more embellishments, ey?

My plan is to have my daughter help me decorate it over the weekend. Then I was thinking we'd go get our real tree and decorate that one too. Times are tight this year, we cut what we normally spend in half. I was thinking I would like to make some handmade gifts to let people know how much I care about them.

Anyway, I'm rambling... I purchased one of the kits out of the mini to make the round ornaments.

I'm not sure if the photo does this justice, but I turned the lights out so you'd get that "tree lit room" feel, it's almost as soft as candlelight. I see how excited my daughter gets with the idea of making homemade ornaments. I certainly feel a tradition coming on. how cute would it be to replace one of the circles with a photograph and give them as home made gifts? Perhaps emboss the year on another?? The possibilites.. Lots of grandchildren? how about one in each circle? So cute!

I have the sizzix die that makes these shapes, so by the end of the weekend i'm thinking i'll be doing just that!

Thanks so much for this challenge, Lisa! It pulled me out of the box to actually sit down and make one of these. One of my customers has been asking me about them and now I can tell her to watch out, they are addicting!

Want to see what the other Bloggers Group Members are up to? Just click the link on my right hand sidebar to view the list of our group members! I'm sure you will NOT be disappointed!

A remake and remake again

Life gives you lemons... well, you know the rest. This weekend I did a holiday craft fair up at the Rockingham race track. Walking through and seeing the faces of all the vendors, it was clear that that everyone was in the same boat. I decided that I would not have that "defeated face" that all the other vendors had, and I was going to sit and make something.

It was still a very good craft fair for me, I sold hundreds of handmade cards and I almost made my booth fee back.. What can you do?? (smile) & Make some more cards!

I did meet a few new stamping friends and scrapbookers, and THAT just makes life sweet! I brought a packet of supplies with me, some rubons and the supplies to make the card i did for the diva's. What's funny is, i think my favorite is the most simple, the one at the bottom with the circle. It's really funny how my tastes have changed as time goes on. I had a girlfriend say that to me the other day. I used to NEED a ton of layers to feel like a card was complete, and now, if it's cute, I run it.. It does not need to take 2 hours to make a card. Here's your proof:

A winner!

Just for leaving a comment on my blog, you could win a prize! Congratulations to Robin M. who won the card below!

Way to go Robin, I hope getting this in your mailbox will brighten your day!

Diva's Coffee House Design Team Challenge 105

For this week's challenge, we have a sketch challenge, designed by me! I was excited the Heidi picked me today and used my sketch!

I made a really simple card and hope that it's simple for anyone! It doesnt have to take 2 hours to make a card. Especially when something simple will do!

Would you like to play along?? Just design a card, and post it somewhere. Make sure you give me the link so I can check out your creation! Too fun!

Then, while you're at it, you can see what the other design team members are up to. Here are the links to their blogs.

Chris Austin
Connie Babbert
Dannie Graves
Dee Tollaksen
Heidi Michel (Mrs Diva)
Jennifer Van Wart
Julie Semones
Kristen Moore
Lisa Freeman
Vivian Swain

Color Inspiration #34

Another Fabulous Color Combination by Kristina Werner. Again stepping outside my comfortable colors or working on yet another Christmas card, working with these colors was a Breath of fresh air!

I chose to stamp my tree in bordering blue, although I tried grey too, it was outside the color challenge so I changed it back. I added leaves to the tree in all the other colors and this one went together pretty quickly. I was surprised to see how close bordering blue was to the in color inspired button. When I was all done, I painted the leaves with crystal effects to make them shiny. Ohh.. it's shiny!!! What a fabulous color combo! Thanks for another awesome challenge Kristina! I had fun!

Finally, here'a a close up of the leaves in case the first photo didn't shine enough. I turned off the flash to get this one! :) ~ Selene

Mojo Monday ~ A Half Hour Card

Last week, a girlfriend from the Diva's Coffee Design Team told me about the Poetic Artistry blog. I went and checked it out. It's really pretty fabulous! Every week, the owner of the blog, Julee, posts a sketch challenge.

So, here's my first whack at a mojo Monday card. This is a really simple card, beacuse i needed to make it in a half hour if i wanted to get it done before it's time to get my angel at preschool. I probably should have used less ribbon, but i had fun making the card. The brad in the center of the "hearts" flower, had a casing. I just removed it from the casing by using the pliers from my crafters tool kit to peel back one of the clasps on the brad. It fell right out and ~ of course ~ i used crystal effects to add it to the focal point of the card.

The sentiment is a rub on. Don't you just love the rubons?? This is a really cute layout and I may play with it again during the week. I like being able to make a card in a half hour.. :) Guess i could have cleaned my stamp room, but what fun is that?