I know... It's been a while... & challenge entries

This past week has been nuts! I got almost no time to stamp until this weekend because my husband Ed has been working crazy overtime. So that means that I have been on "chase the baby around the house and make sure he doesn't hurt himself or someone else" duty.

My husband Ed is an Ironworker and summer time is always a busy time for him. The push is always on to get whatever building he is working on completed. I thought I would share with you a couple of pictures of him at the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) a few summers ago. Those of you from Toronto, he was working on the new Crystal addition.

Right now he is working at the Royal Conservatory of Music, right next to the ROM. The adorable girl would be my daughter Kieran, she's 10 now, but was 8 in these pictures. I call the second picture "Beauty and the Beast" love that one!

Anyhow, on to the challenges. I made the following card for two challenges. Since I was short on time I thought I could make it work.

The first challenge is the So Shelli challenge. For those of you who don't know, Shelli is the CEO and founder of Stampin' Up! Each month she posts challenges, open to Demo's and customers alike. I haven't entered one in a while because the Blog reader I use (Google Reader) stopped getting the new blog posts!! And I just figured it out the other day. Shelli's challenge this month is SIP- Stamps, Ink, Paper. Make anything, but just use that stuff. No extra embellishments, ribbon etc.

As soon as I read that, I thought about the Pal Paper Arts challenge which is a sketch this week.
It is a beautifully simple sketch and I felt that it matched well with Shelli's SIP challenge.

So, what do you think? It is simple. and I kind of like that. I went with my fav new colour combo of Blush Blossom & Chocolate Chip (with a bit of Close to Cocoa & Very Vanilla too!). I also used my new French Fillagre Background stamp. And one of my all time favorite sets "All Holidays".

Products used:
Stampin' Up "All Holidays" stamp set, "French Fillagre" Background stamp
Stampin' Up Card stock- Blush Blossom, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla.
Stampin' Up Ink- Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa.
Accessories: Brayer, Sponge Daubers, Scalloped edge punch.

Cheers,

Hodgepodge Hardware Sample #3

Hey Guys,

I got a bit of time to create last night!!! :) So I thought I would use the Hodgepodge Hardware that's on sale this week. I will be placing an order this weekend, so if you have anything you want to pick up- please send the order to me by Saturday so that I can add it in (then you save on shipping).

This card uses one of my new stamp sets called "A Rose is a Rose". I have been eyeballing it for a few catalogues now, and decided that I wanted it for my collection! And I am so glad that I got it. I LOVE it! I love how the two step stampin' really gives this a beautiful. Look. 2 Step Stampin' works by having 2 stamps of the same image but slightly different. One is more solid than the other. You ink up the solid image in a ink colour then you stamp the second less solid image over top in a darker colour. The resulting image is beautiful!!! Then I trimmed all the bits and mounted some of them with dimensionals, but you can't really see that in the picture. The sentiment is also from the same stamp set, but I colour two words at a time with my Old Olive marker so that I could "stack" the sentiment instead of it being in a long line. That was then framed with some of the Hodgepodge Hardware (on sale right now for only $26.99!!!). And voila, a very pretty card to give to a close friend.

Products used:
Stampin' Up "A Rose is a Rose" stamp set
Stampin' Up Card stock- Rose Red, Old Olive, Whisper White, Very Vanilla, Pretty in Pink.
Stampin' Up Ink- Regal Rose, Rose Red, Old Olive, Certainly Celery.
Accessories: Designer Label Punch, Dimensionals, Top Note Die, Big Shot, Perfect Details Texturz plate, Styled Vanilla Hodgepodge Hardware, 1/6" hole punch, corner rounder, Rose Red 1/4" grosgrain ribbon, sponge dauber.

Cheers,