Challenging Weekend

I finally had a day to myself to stamp. So after eating a delicious brunch, I spent the rest of my Sunday watching Cheers on my computer and stamping. I made a few cards for some challenges out in the blogosphere. And here they are:

I made this card for the video challenge over at StampTV. Gina asked us to make a project using an embosses glittered panel. I embossed a sheet of pattern paper from the Basic Grey Marjolaine pad. I am in love with the paper in this stack. I love greens and blues together. So refreshing and calming. After embossing the paper I used a Sakura glitter pen to add glitter to the raised flower petals. I also used the glitter pen on some of the lines in the plaid mug. It is much more sparkly in real life. The mug stamp I used for my super fabulous plaid mug is from Melanie's set, Mugs and Kisses. And the Faith sentiment is from Faithful Florals. The card base is Pure Luxury Soft Sand {Gina K} and I used Border Blue {Stampin Up} to mat the green glittery embossed layer.

My second card is my submission for the Card Patterns #96 sketch. My favorite challenges are sketch challenges. And Card Patterns always has a great sketch every week. I chose to use a rectangle instead of a circle for the main panel on my card. The stamp is from Great Impressions. I picked it up at Stampede, the local stamp store in York, PA. I used more paper from Basic Grey's Marjolaine pad. The card base is Pure Luxury Soft Sand {Gina K}. I used some cute bakers twine I found on Etsy a while ago, thanks to a tip from Patter over at Triple the Scraps blog.



My final card is for the Unscripted Sketch #87 challenge. Another awesome sketch challenge. Some more Basic Grey Marjolaine paper and one simple sentiment from Tami Mayberry's set Faithful Florals. The card base is Pure Luxury Soft Sand {Gina K} and the I used Bordering Blue {Stampin Up} to mat the layers. The blue ink is Tim Holtz Distressed Faded Jeans.

I will have some more time tomorrow night to stamp. I can't wait. And I am planning to ring in the new year with some stamping. What better way to celebrate. :o)

CPS198 Covered In Chocolate

Everything is better covered in chocolate, right? LOL!

I made this fun card using Melanie Muenchinger's new set, Mugs and Kisses. The main theme of the set is based upon two fun mug images that you can decorate any way you wish. I chose however to use the cute little chocolate truffles for this card. It would be a perfect Valentine's Day card in non traditional colors. The inside of the card reads; "are covered in chocolate". The layout is from CPS Card Sketch #198.

Stamps: Mugs and Kisses & The Best Things in Life (GinaK)
Paper: Pure Luxury Sweet Mango (GinaK), Purely Pomegranate & Close to Cocoa (Stampin' Up), Green At Heart (Basic Grey)
Other: Blossom and Circle Spellbinder's dies, silver cording, striped ribbon, Copic Markers

I pray you had a Very Blessed Merry Christmas!

Christmas Mugs and Kisses

Melanie is a genius when it comes to designing fun sets with tons of co-ordinating accessories and words. I fell in love with her stamps when she released Little Tees. I was the first one in line to purchase it after the release party. Of course she released several co-ordinating Tee sets after that, and they are fabulous. She even asked me to be a guest designer for one of those sets, School, Sports Spirit. And when I thought she couldn't top that she came out with Tech Talk. Hello! I am a total tech geek, working in IT. And I was asked by Gina to be a part of the CSS Design Team that month and that was the set I was to feature. Fate of course. :o) Then their is Mugs and Kisses. This set just made me faint. :O) I am a Starbucks' mug collecting freak. Mostly because I love all the cool designs. So this set allows me to make many cool mugs with all the wonderful pattern papers that I own. It is absolutely perfect for paper piecing.

She is featuring some of my cards on her blog today. And I will be sharing a few cards here.

I made this first card for the current Card Patterns sketch #95. And I used some Basic Grey paper I picked up at AC Moore the other day. I was also inspired by this photo of a real Starbucks mug I found online here.

I pulled out another set by Melanie called Have a Cookie to make the little Gingerbread Man to put in the top of the mug. I made whipped cream with some white liquid pearls.

I used some fun Basic Grey Snowman paper to make this mug. I would love to have a real mug like this one. The panels with the coffee beans I made by stamping the beans and the word coffee all over some white card stock and then sponging with some Tim Holtz ink. The sketch is from StampTV, featured on December 13th.

Make sure you stop by Melanie's blog to see my other cards and you can see all of Melanie's stamp sets for sale at Gina K's store here.

Make it an awesome day!

Christmas Cards Courtesy of my SS

My CSS Alumni Secret Sister sent me some very cool stamps in the packages I received from her. One of the sets is a gorgeous Christmas set from Flourishes called A Gift For You. She used the stamp set to make up the tag kit she included in the last package I received.

I wanted to use the set to make some cards as well.  Here are two cards I put together using the same focal image, but with slightly different layouts and bling.

I used White, Soft Sand, Fresh Asparagus and Cranberry Tart Pure Luxury Card stock. I love how both cards turned out and I really like the color combination. I will definitely use it again.

Thank you Secret Sister for the wonderful goodies you've sent me to play with!

To everyone out there getting a lot of snow, stay safe and send some my way.

CSS Alumni Blog Hop - December 2010 Sketch

Welcome to another Center Stage Alumni Blog Hop. I want to say how honored I feel to be a part of this group. This will be our last hop for 2010, and I hope we can share many more hops in the next year. If you are coming from Melissa's blog, then you are right on track. If not, then you can go to the StampTV forum to start from the beginning. You will not want to miss all of the fabulous projects that the group has to share.

For this hop we were given a sketch, created by our very own Melissa Cash, to use for our project. I made two snow related cards for this hop. I am quite envious of those in other areas of the country that are snowed in. I love snow!

Here is the sketch:

And here is my first card made with the Color Challenge colors from last week. I love Pink, Chocolate and Ivory together. I used one of my favorite winter sets, Winter Friends to make this one. And added lots of texture with embossing folders.

For my second card I used Melanie's new set Mugs and Kisses.

This is most fabulous set ever sold in Gina's store. Seriously, you need to get this set! :p)

I am a coffee fanatic. Not just drinking it, but also collecting things related to coffee. I have so many Starbucks mugs. I just love collecting them. So many cool designs. And now, I can create any kind of mug I want to. Oh yeah!!!! Very cool!!!  I decided to add a lot of blink to this one as well. I love the faux adhesive back brads and there are so many colors available now. I couldn't resist adding a ton of mini brads to the snowflakes. So fun! You can click on the image to get a closer view.

Now head on over to
Miesje's blog
to see what amazing project she has to share with you. And remember to make it a great weekend!