Saturday Sketch Challenge 138

A little too much going on with this card perhaps? This is my stamping 411 card for this week.

You have got to see what my girlfriends did with this sketch. They are all so talented!

The thing that we hear (for feedback) over and over again, is that you love that we give measurements! This makes it easier for you to try a sketch out! I hope you'll play along this week!

I'm very sentimental when it comes to my cards for the troops.

Tonight was set aside for creating cards for the troops. My friend Robin Merriman gave me a whole box of card fronts that need to be made into full cards. These cards will go to Afghanistan and Iraq and be distributed, so our folks overseas will be able to have cards to send home to family.

This is the first time I inked this set up. I'm not sure that I love the outcome, but I love the meaning behind it and I'm determined to try again until I love it :)

This card measures 5 1/4" square. So here are my measurements:

Base is 5 1/4" x 10 1/2" scored and folded in half at 5 1/4"
Second layer: 5 1/8" square
Third Layer 5 1/4 x 1 1/2"
Fourth: ribbon
The main image is 3 1/4" x 2 3/4" and I matted that from there.

Bloggers Challenge ~ Valentine's day

I've been a bad blogger this week.. My little one has been under the weather so nothing else in the house is feeling right. I was happy to already have a bloggers challenge done, well sort of. I made these cute lolly pops using the sweet treat heart shaped cups and had planned to send them in to school with Alexis.

I was getting ready to sit down and do the project when I realized I had bought a package of 30 premade valentines from SU. I didn't want to drag Alexis out to the store to buy things to fill the boxes with, but I found a bag of lolly pops I had purchased at the dollar store a few weeks ago. I broke out the anywhere hole punch and punched a hole in the bottom of these pouches, ran a lolly pop through and attached them to the inside with dimensionals. Then I added a friendlys coupon for a free ice cream inside each one. Alexis wrote them all out herself (not bad for a preschooler).So even though I purchased the premade boxes and went for it, I thought a little bit "outside the box" by punching my hole and putting the lolly in. I do feel just a little bit that I took the easy way out, but is that so bad? TGIF! I cant wait to see what my girlfriends from the bloggers challenge group are up to this week. They never disappoint me with their creativity. :)

mojo monday ~ grown up valentine

Well, it's Monday and off to the races! This week's mojo card will be the card I give to my hubby for valentine's day. I think this sketch is fantastic and "grown up" so it is the perfect way to be inspired for valentines.

My little one is not feeling well, and home from school today, so I'm not sure how much I'm going to get done this week. I'm glad I was able to sneak off to make a quick card while she's sleeping.

I used a rubon, on the brown layer at the bottom to follow the sketch. For the heart, I layered 3 of them, and used the rock and roll technique for the center heart. I think my honey will like this card, it's on the masculine side, right?? Well i guess that big ribbon isn't too manly, but it's from me, and I have a thing for ribbon.

Off to make some chicken soup and check on my little one. Poor little thing..

Saturday Sketch Challenge 137

I wasn't sure that I loved the card I made for the challenge this week. I've had a bit of a creative block. I know, it' happens. :) What bothers me most is that I thought I was going to LOVE this stamp set, and I'm finding myself a bit challenged with it! I will say that I found a cool new technique from a fellow stamper Beth during last weeks 411 challenge. Beth used a cool technique for making the holes in a large oval punch. I used them on my bunny card, but you should go check out her quick tutorial.. BTW Beth, you have lovely hands (don't listen to the hubby). I gave this card to my hostess this week and I have to say, it's been forever since I used ballet blue, but I think I'll be pulling it out some more for spring.

For my second card, I went CRAZY clean and simple. My base is craft, and my second layer is 4 x 2 1/4" craft. There's some punches and a couple of cut images, but that's it for layers, I kept it super simple. I did add quite a bit of glitter.

I hope you have time to play along with the Stamping 411 challenge this week.

Bloggers Challenge ~ Red White and Black

I opted not to make my bloggers challenge card last night, mainly because when I look at this color set I think "valentines". I've made so many valentine cards lately, I'm getting a little burnt on the holiday. :)

This morning I rolled over, and noticed a picture that had been moved to my bedroom. A picture of my little one (at about 18 months) wearing the coolest little ladybug dress. So I went out to my stamp room on a mission to find lady bugs. Lo and behold, here lies garden whimsy. This has been on my shelf for quite sometime, and I can't tell you the last time I used it!

As I started to recreate the little dress I saw when I woke up, I stamped the sentiment "best friends listen to what you don't say" and started to think about my relationships. Not with people that live by me, but my stamper friends. Stampers are truly special people and I feel very lucky to have such beautiful (inside and out) friends.

This card is pretty straight forward, but I'm thinking it could use some crystal effects.. I also think I should be mailing this one off to someone (that's the part I always seem to forget because I'm a card hoarder).

I hope you have a great Friday, TGIF!! I cant wait to see what the other girls from bloggers challenge have come up with for this week.

Lisa's Birthday Invites

My girlfriend Lisa was at the house today, we sat down and prepped 50 invitations for her little one's first birthday party. These aren't going to be sent out for a few months, but it's certainly nice to get them taken care of!

We started with spring showers DSP that she had leftover, and used the colors from that to get started. The big gorgeous saffron bow really made it girlie even though we used blue. We used a pretties kit for the bling and the fabric flowers and kept the card pretty flat for mailing by not knotting the bow. We just used the brad to hold it together.

We used the teddy and train stamp set.

Base layer: 11 x 4 1/4" scored in half at 5.5"
Layer 2: 5 x 3 3/4"
Layer 3: 4 7/8" x 3 5/8"
Layer 4: 2 1/8" x 2 3/8"
Layer 5: 2 x 2 1/4"
Designer paper is 5 x 1/2"

I hope you're having a great week and you've had time to stamp something fun!
Selene Kempton

Mojo Monday

I had so much fun putting this mojo monday card together. I veered a little from the sketch so I could stamp with stazon on my satin ribbon. That's what a sketch is supposed to do, inspire!

I layered my stamps on the right hand pane and painted both images with crystal effects and mixed in a little reinker for the color.

I used versamark on the background.

Happy Monday!
Selene Kempton