Take Two!

Hi everyone. Well, I tweeked my Fall To #48 card from yesterday (scroll down to yesterday's post to compare). Not that yesterday's card was BAD, I just didn't like the crocheted/felt flowers as much as I wanted to.

So, I pulled them off and used primas with button centers instead! The smallest prima has a Kaiser pearl in it in Blush. Ta Da, here it is. Funny how changing these made a huge difference (imo).

Thanks for stopping by!

Cupcake Inspiration challenge

Hi everyone! Well, my title is a bit misleading cause I DON'T have a card for this week's Cupcake Inspiration Challenge, CIC13! Certainly not for lack of inspiration, check out these gorgeous cupcakes.... YUMMY!

I just haven't had much time to work on one and when I finally sat down today to stamp, the size of the card didn't lend toward my butterflies idea! Oh well, I went with flowers for this week's Fall To Layout #48. I used my large circle nesties for the shape and some of the yummy MME Laundry Line DP I found on clearance at Craft Warehouse. The flowers are a combination of Zva Creative felt flowers (both the cool and cozy color packs) and hand crocheted flowers (from Etsy). See the chipboard divider? It actually uses the negative space of the chipboard borders (you know, the stuff in between?). See the pic below. That's why they call us SCRAPPERS -LOL!!! The sentiment is from Verve's Because of You set. I curled the paper with my fingernail on one side then the other to get that wavy look.

A detail pic:

Using up all the scraps -never throw anything away -LOL!:
This next card is for yesterday's Featured Stamper challenge. The honor went to DawnL -and man oh man! One tiny glance in Dawn's gallery and you will see just WHY she is a Dirty Girl! I chose this magnificent all white card.

My card has no where near the elegance and dimension of Dawn's, I absolutely LOVE her use use of the spellbinder frames. Sadly, I don't have any of those, but I took the idea and played around with the items I did have. I changed up the sentiment, frames, location of white embellishments. Congrats Dawn, enjoy your day!

The sentiment is Beautiful Forever by Great Impressions. I used a variety of Martha Stewart leaves/branch punches, megabilities curvy rectangle nesties, swiss dots EF, some ribbon, irridescent cord and pearl stamens. Oh and those white paper flowers I found in the wedding section of the Dollar Tree -they were some kind of a corsage with a stick pen going thru them. They are quite lovely once taken apart!

Oh and a little tip on how to assemble that mass of flowers ribbons and punched leaves. I punched an oval from scrap paper and used that as my "gluing template". I first added some glue dots on it and just kept adding to it, playing around with the arrangement as I went. Here is a picture of the underside before I glued it to the corner of the card. I don't know what Dawn's technique was. I stared at her card for no less than an hour trying to figure out how the heck she put together such a beautiful ensemble of stuff. Not sure, but my idea worked for me. I did it in a smaller version for the upper corner.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great afternoon!

Card Deets (FTL48):
Stamps - Beautiful You
Ink - black
Paper - MME Laundry Line DP, Vintage Cream
Accessories - felt flowers, jumbo brads, chipboard border (MME), large circle nesties, crocheted flowers

Card Deets (FS125):

Stamps - Beautiful Forever

Ink - Black, Pale Plum for sponging

Paper - White

Accessories - satin ribbon, pearl stamens, paper flowers, swiss dots EF, curvy rectangle, irridescent cord, corner rounder

Verve Release day and Designing with Hope Stamps Eternal!

Hi everyone! Lots of excitement today! I am very happy to announce that I am part of the new amazing Hope Stamps Eternal design team -the DT coordinator, in fact!! Woot! I was so thrilled when my friend Rachel decided to put together a team for her amazing store, Hope Stamps Eternal. There were MANY AMAZING applicants, and it was very hard to narrow it down, but without further adu, here is the new team:

Rachel Hope Baird, owner extraordinaire - Hope Stamps Eternal

Michelle Woerner, DT Coordinator (ME!!)

Bonnie Sharp - The Lucky Clucker
Carolina Buchting - Carolina's Creative Pad
Colleen Wold - Glitter Ink

Jessica Colligan - Shamrocks and Seashells

Kelli Caslow - Yard Sale Kind of Luck

Natalie Dever - The Dougnat Diaries

Tammy Hershberger - Stamp Happy

What did I tell ya? Fantastic team, huh?!? Each week the team will be playing along in the Cupcake Inspiration Challenges and everyone is welcome to play! The challenges are posted each Sunday, but that day may change as the team takes shape. I hope to inspire you to play along, stay tuned this Sunday for an AMAZING cupcake :-)

AND, today is the final sneak peek day for Verve Stamps and we are peeking the set, Forever In our Hearts. This set is an amazing sympathy set. In true Verve style, the sentiments are just beautiful.

My card uses the monochromatic colors of black, cream with a touch of metallic cardstock in Champagne. The prima flowers each have a black Kaiser pearl in the center and the black flourishes are a combination of spellbinder dies cut up and glued. The background panel was embossed with my all time favorite folder, Swiss Dots!

PLEASE join us for the Verve Release Party tonight at 6pm (Pacific time)!! There will be lots of fun chatting, more DT sneak peek cards and of course PRIZES!! It's always a good time and we hope to see you there!!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Card Deets:

Stamps - Forever in our Hearts
Ink - Versafine Black Onyx
Paper - vintage Cream and Black (PaperTrey Ink), Champagne textured cardstock (DCWV)
Accessories - Champagne 7/8" organdy ribbon, Floral Fancies in Opal (Prima), Swiss Dots embossing folder (Cuttlebug), Pearls in black (Kaiser Basics), Small classic and scallop oval nestabilities and Flourish Accents (Spellbinders)

Hip Hop - Christmas in June!

Hi everyone and welcome to my last Hip Hop as Unity's June guest designer. Man, this month FLEW by and a big thank you to Angela, AJ and the entire DT for this great month!!

This week's theme is Christmas in June! Today Unity is releasing the SUPAH amazing Merry and Bright kit! LOVE it! If you are following the hop, you came my way via the amazing Jimmi. If not, feel free to go back to the beginning at Angela's blog -there's lots of great Christmas goodness to see!

I am super excited to show you a couple projects I made with it. First up is a card. I love this layout, it's a great way to use up those strips of DP that always seem to accummulate! I stamped the ornaments in Versafine and embossed them with clear EP and cut them out. Then I added some highlights with a Sakura red Stardust pen, a couple swipes with a copic and some tiny bling. I punched a hole at the top and added some wire (from the jewelry section of Michael's) and made it all curly. I stamped the sentiment on the bottom right and added another piece of tiny bling on the "i".

**sorry everyone! You'll have to check out the December issue of Cards to see this one for now***

This next project was really fun to make. Remember my amazing Martha Stewart $2 find at Big Lots? Well, I also got a vellum goodie bag kit for $2 (and a couple more things I stashed away too). I LOVE THESE! Most of you know I don't make my own bags, too much trouble -LOL! So when I find some ALREADY made -whoa, heaven!! All I had to do was cut some Basic Grey Christmas DP for the tops and do a decorative little something on the bag, fill it with some Hershey's Kisses -presto, done!!

I have a close up pic of each bag. This first bag uses the snowflake image embossed in silver. I used the circle image and added some layers with my circle nestabilities. I added some red rhinestones and a gem brad for the center. It is so hard to capture in a picture, but the layer around the snowflake is shiny silver cardstock (looks black here). The ribbon is threaded thru 2 holes punched at the top of the bag.

This next bag uses that amazing ornament again (LOVE IT!). This time I stamped it with olive craft and embossed it with clear. I then did some silver coloring on the strips and added that fabulous silver striped organdy ribbon. See that yummy wire again? I used a longer piece on this and curled the ends off to the left. You can't see in the picture, but that scalloped part at the bottom of the DP is silver cardstock, it looks black in the picture.

Thanks for stopping by everyone.

Now it's time to to head on over to the fabulous...

---JULIE---

P.S. I haven't heard from either of the winners of my blog candy (see bottom of this post). Is it you? If so, please contact me by Friday otherwise I will draw 2 more names.

Verve Sneak Peeks have begun!

Hi everyone! Well, it's time for the Verve Stamps June release sneak peeks! We have 3 great days of peeks with the release party on Friday, June 26th. I hope you can join us, where there will be fun chatting, more cards peeked and fun prizes!!

Today's set being peeked is called Kindred Spirits. WOW! Julee never ceases to amaze me. Seriously, month after month! This set has great Fleur-de-lis images in several sizes -even a border! And, of course there are fabulous sentiments too.

My card uses one of the damask-ish images (which is actually 4 Fleur-de-lis images scrunched together in one) stamped in alternating colors. I love how I can make my own background with this set and customize it to match any paper or flower I need!!

The colors for this card actually came from Dawn's Raspberry Suite color challenge -to use Berry Sorbet, Melon Berry, Chocolate Chip and Vintage Cream. Well, I don't have the Melon color AT ALL, so I substituted ColorBox Papaya Cream (the only thing that I had that was even close). The sentiment is stamped from the SU large oval punch and I drug the edges thru the Berry Sorbet ink and then framed it with another oval punched from Chocolate Chip cs. Isn't that prima flower fabulous? Man, Prima sure does it right! I put a button with some burlap string in the center and added a couple punched branches (from Martha Stewart) on the side! Some of PTI's fabulous ribbons finish the card!

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check out the Verve Blog to check out the other Diva samples!! AND Julee has a chance for one lucky commenter to win a Verve-y prize!!

Card deets:

Stamps - Kindred Spirits

Ink - Berry Sorbet, Papaya Cream, Chocolate Chip

Paper - Berry Sorbet, Chocolate Chip, Vintage Cream

Accessories - Button, prima flower, large oval punch (SU!), berry sorbet grosgrain, chocolate brown dotted satin, MS branch punch

Jacksonbelle Tuesday, Featured Stamper and a winner!

Hi everyone! It's Tuesday and that means it's another Jacksonbelle challenge! Sadly, today will be my last JBelle Tuesday, as I have stepped down from the team. A sad goodbye, I love Lindsey and the entire team. It was such great fun to be a part of this amazing team! But, stay tuned, there will be a happy hello announced later in the week.

This week's challenge was a sketch -you can check it out on the JBelle Blog. Everyone is welcome to play along. As usual if you don't need to have JBelle supplies to play, but if you don't have any, you can check out the store and see if anything strikes your fancy. If you upload, you can use the keyword JBE059.

For my card, I went with only paper. Yep, no stamping on this baby. Don't ask me why, I didn't plan it this way, nothing would fit quite right in the oval. Huh? ... I still like it, it is just a bit different from most of my cards. The papers are all from Prima, from the Prima Life in Colors line.

For more inspiration on today's sketch, be sure to check out the other Design Team's cards!!

AJ Otto--The Willow Garden
Heather Lee-Reppen--Ink on my Ear
Jill Dunn--InkGenious
Jennifer Buck--The Buck Stamps Here
Kimberly O'Rosky--Sunshiny Days
Kisa Peters--Kisa's Paper Cuts
Lindsey Botkin--Embellished
Lynda Benden--Stamp Act
Maren Benedict--Zany not Crazy
Melissa Bove--Creating From the Heart
Shannan Teubner--Pink Tulle with Feathers & Sequins

My next card is for this week's Featured Stamper challenge on SCS. This week the FS was Christy S. What a super fun gallery! I chose this card to case. I changed up the images, colors, but kept true to the layout and cute use of the 3 strips of DP.

The amazing lemonade glass image is from the newly released Unity Retro BBQ kit! I spent alot of time trying to figure out how to color the glasses, and settled on outlining them with Sakura Stardust pens! Love the super sparkle!! Oh, I also stamped the background maker sprinkle stamp on the yellow cs and embossed it with clear. The lemons have tiny bling in the centers. Everything is stamped in Memento Tuxedo black ink so I could hightlight the words with Copic markers without smudging.

And now time for the blog candy winners!!! Here are the Random.org number selections.

Here are your random numbers:

136

Timestamp: 2009-06-23 04:51:22 UTC

AND

10
Timestamp: 2009-06-23 04:52:13 UTC

OK, so after counting 2 times and my counting double checked by Bill-

Winner of prize #1 (post 136) is:

Anonymous said...

Hi Michelle,

I just wanted to send you my congrats from Australia, even though the blog candy is probably only available for US residents.
I've been a fan long before you even had a blog, right from the very early days of your SCS gallery. Your little teddy and your stunning cards used to brighten my day so much.
It's great to see how much you have achieved since then and I wish you continued success.

Kindest regards,
Robyn Little

and winner of prize #2 (post 10) is:

momsforest said...

Happy Blogaversary Michelle!!!!! I'd love to win them goodies!!!

Congrats ladies!! Woohoo! Please contact me at the email on my sidebar with your address information and Heidi and I will get the goodies out to you both!!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Hope Stamps Eternal Cupcake Inspiration challenge

Hi everyone! I have a double challenge card and a fun Michael's find to share with you today. Lookie....

... mmm, yummy cupcake! This is the image Rachel chose for this week's for Hope Stamps Eternal's Cupcake Inspiration challenge.

The white filigree bottoms reminded me immediately of my Martha Stewart bridal kit find. I used some Basic Grey Wisteria papers, lots of Kaiser rhinestones, some prima flowers and May Arts white dotted organdy ribbon.

The card follows this week's Fall to Layout #47 from the Clean and Simple blog. I love these weekly Fall to Sketches, but rarely get time to play along. Don't you wish there were 2 more hours in the day JUST FOR STAMPING?! -LOL!

AND... don't you just LOOOOOOVE Michael's? Look at what I found there yesterday...

Woohoo! Yep, that is a cute set of 8 notecards with envies I found in their dollar section! I actually sat down in the isle and went thru ALL their new designs and settled on the owls (OMG, so many to chose from -apples, flowers, roosters, ACK!). I got the note cards, coupon holder, magnet, and the to do/shopping list pad!! Look how I altered the note cards...

How fun! I don't know if you can see (click for a larger image), I added a row of rhinestones and brads along the bottom and on the tree blooms. I trimmed the notecard and mounted it on cardstock, added some Zva Creative felt flowers and a punched out sentiment. I am going to turn these into a set of Thank You/Hello note cards. My sister's friends buy these up faster than I can make them!! Oh happy day!!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

Card Deets:

Stamps - Thank you sentiment from clear stamp set

Paper - Kraft, white, Wisteria -Basic Grey

Accessories - Primas, buttons, white dotted organdy, Kaiser rhinestones

A new color challenge for me

Hi everyone! OK, so I have heard about Kristina Werner's Color Inspiration challenges for some time now and never found my way to her blog. BUT, all that has changed -LOL! I followed a link and finally found her blog! AND I made time today to play along!

This week's Color Inspiration #55 colors were: Really Rust, More Mustard, Cream and Basic Gray. WHA??? I immediately thought of Basic Grey's Ambrosia pad. Yep, PERFECT match! The inspiration for this card came from my bloggin' friend Muriel and this totally cute card. I saw her diagonal trim piece and saved it in my brain for future use!! Thanks Muriel!

The sentiment is from Verve's Sweet on You set - I love using this sentiment with colorful cards! The large gray button is vintage from my granny's tin and the other 2 are from my stash from Pinkhedgehog Papercrafts (as is the burlap string). See that yummy trim? Oh, it's from Prima and I love it! Linz is out of stock right now, send her an email if you want her to order some more!!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Oh, and if you haven't already done so, you can enter for my 1 year Blogaversary Blog Candy!! There are 2 prizes up for grabs and Heidi (prize #1) will even ship INTERNATIONALLY! Leave me a comment on this post. You have until Monday the 22nd, 9pm PST to enter.

AND, my supah good friend, Rachel who owns the store Hope Stamps Eternal is having a DT call!! You can find out all the deets here!!!

Card Deets:
Stamps - Sweet on You
Ink - Basic Grey (SU!)
Paper - vintage Cream (PaperTrey Ink), Really Rust (SU!), Ambrosia (Basic Grey)
Accessories - Buttons, Clear rhinestones (Kaiser), Top Note die cut (SU!), grey trim (Prima)

Verve's Project Parade -It's a Guy Thing

Hi everyone! Have you all been visiting the Verve Blog to check out the Diva's projects? The theme this month is It's a Guy thing and there have been tons of great inspiration over there!!

There is still time to play along and have a chance to win some delicious Verve Stamps!! Just link your creation to the Mr. Linky form on the Verve Blog Day 1 post before 8 pm MT on Saturday, June 20 (tomorrow). We've also hidden another $25 gift certificate somewhere along the parade for a random commenter. Good luck!

Here is one of the cards I posted for my day of the Parade. It uses the newly released Protector set, and the sentiment is from last year's release Father Figure. I have 2 other cards, you'll have to hop on over to see them! My day was Monday the 8th.

Also, my good friend, Rachel who owns the fabulous store, Hope Stamps Eternal is having a design team call! There is still time to apply, you can find all the details here. Good luck!!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!!

Hip Hop Rewind -Birthday Chic!

Hi everyone and welcome to my 3rd Hip Hop! Today's theme is Hip Hop Rewind. We can use any kit previously released by Unity. I chose the super fun Birthday Chic!! I am always in need of birthday cards and this set is PERFECT and FUN!

If you are following the hop, you came my way via the amazing Jen Buck. If not, feel free to go back to the beginning at Angela's blog -there's lots of great Rewind goodness to see! This card also uses yesterday's SCS sketch. I colored the present with copics and highlighted the ribbon and bow with Sakura Stardust pens. The DP is a combo of PTI Bitty Stars and SU's Delicate Dots.

This second card is SUPER quick and easy to make -love those for the last minute cards my sister always needs -LOL! See the fun scalloped paper? I found at Big Lots an entire Martha Steward bridal invitation kit for $2!! It has 40 A2 sized cards with a punched/embossed border and envies (plus lots more). S-C-O-R-E! These are perfect for CAS cards, so I am sure you will be seeing lots more cards with this lovely border!

All I did for this card is stamp the super cute sentiment, add some ribbon and LOTS of bling. It's hard to see in the picture but the row of rhinestones alternate pink and clear!!

Like usual, I will be chatting in the Hip Hip thread and giving away another prize around 1:00 (Pacific). Stop by and say HI!!

NOW HEAD ON TO THE FABULOUS:

---ROBYN--- !!!!!

My good friend, Rachel who owns the amazing store Hope Stamps Eternal is having a Design Team call! There is still time to apply, here are the details!!

If you haven't already done so, be sure to check out my blog candy! There are 2 fun prizes up for grabs!! Leave me a comment on this post.

Jacksonbelle Tuesday challenge

Hi everyone! It's Tuesday and time for another Jacksonbelle challenge. This entire month we have sketches! I love this sketch!! I actually flipped it vertical. Everyone is welcome to play along. As usual if you don't need to have JBelle supplies to play, but if you don't have any, you can check out the store and see if anything strikes your fancy. You can use the keyword JBE058.

That lovely bird image is from Inkadinkado, Birds Galore. I stamped the bird part with purple and the leaves with green chalk ink. I love using chalk ink on clear stamps, because you can see what you are doing and the ink doesn't dry! The amazing crocheted flower is hand made and the pearls are Basic Grey Bling it. The pattern paper is Sprout from Memory Box. See that embossing detail at the bottom? I bought some of the Cuttlebug border folders and never really used them. I kinda like how this turned out.

Be sure to check out the other Design Team's cards, lots of inspiration to be found!!

AJ Otto--The Willow Garden
Heather Lee-Reppen--Ink on my Ear
Jill Dunn--InkGenious
Jennifer Buck--The Buck Stamps Here
Kimberly O'Rosky--Sunshiny Days
Kisa Peters--Kisa's Paper Cuts
Lindsey Botkin--Embellished
Lynda Benden--Stamp Act
Maren Benedict--Zany not Crazy
Melissa Bove--Creating From the Heart
Shannan Teubner--Pink Tulle with Feathers & Sequins

So, did you hear the news? Lindsey is having a DT call to be a JBelle Rockstar! Check out this post on the JBelle Blog for all the deets. Thanks for stopping by!

Be sure to enter my Blog candy!! 2 prizes up for grabs!! Just leave me a comment on this post.

Card Deets:
Stamps - Birds Galore
Ink - VersaMagic chalk ink in Purple Hydrangea and Spanish Olive
Paper - Vintage Cream, Pale Plum, Memory Box Sprout
Accessories - crocheted flower, burlap string, Basic Grey pearls

Going green with vintage buttons

Hi everyone! First, I want to thank everyone for the wonderful birthday wishes and cards! I feel very blessed. I had a WONDERFUL day. I am rarely surprised as I tend to pick up on things, BUT Bill and my mom hid a surprise visit from her VERY well! My mom drove up Sat morning and took me shopping! It was so much fun and really the only way to get me to buy something for myself. I tend to buy things for the family first then craft things for cards -kwim? After the inpromto shopping spree, my sweet hubby Bill took me shopping to Craft Warehouse and my LSS. Talk about a heavenly day!!

Here is a double challenge card I want to share. This card follows Dawn's Raspberry Suite color challenge -to use Cream, Black and New Leaf. Now, I don't have New Leaf, but in looking at PTI's site, it looks between Wasabi and Celery. I found some pattern paper from my DCWV Garden Party matstack looks to be an EXACT match!! Woot! I combined these colors with Cath's current Moxie Fab challenge -The Value of Vintage -to use something vintage on your card. Well, the 3 black buttons are vintage from my granny's tin! The sentiments are from Verve's set, Because of You. I thought it was so perfect on this card focusing on my granny's buttons.

Here is a picture of the inside of the card:

Here is a close up of the button details. It was SO hard to photograph. The buttons are a delish mix of details -they just DON'T make buttons like this anymore!!

Oh and P.S. how about that RIBBON? A-MA-ZING! It's from May Arts and you can find it at Sharon's Stamp Simply store. I browsed her blog and found an amazing card to case that she slit the top of her card and tied the ribbon thru it. I gave it a try and loved it as this ribbon is kinda bulky and can buckle the layers if glued under it. Thanks Sharon -you ROCK!

Thanks for stopping by and stay tuned. I am working on my 1 year Blogaversary super fun Blog Candy post!! ETA: It's posted and you can enter on this post.

My good friend, Rachel who owns the amazing store Hope Stamps Eternal is having a Design Team call! There is still time to apply, here are the details!!

Card Deets:

Stamps - Because of You

Paper - Vintage Cream, Black, Garden Party DCWV

Accessories - May Arts grosgrain striped ribbon, vintage buttons, burlap string

More felt fun!

Hi everyone! OK, I think this could be addicting ...heehee! I just received the felt butterflies I bought from an online store called Craft Embellishment World and they are the CUTEST! Here is a card I made with them. The smaller butterfly is solid on one side and polka dotted on the other -the larger ones are solid on both sides. I have another card in the works using different colors, but same layout. Very quick and easy!!

**OK, what is UP with Blogger's spacing tonight? ACK!?!?**

The DP is Basic Grey Bittersweet, the ribbon is PTI Hibiscus Burst, button and pink burlap string from Pinkhedgehog Papercrafts, and the rhinestone flourish from Zva Creative. I used my swiss dots EF for the background paper and actually sanded and distressed the edges! What up with that? I haven't done that in forEVAH! LOL!

Here is another quick card using those cute felt flowers from Creative Cafe (from my LSS). Ummm, what did I ever do before that Top Note die? I seriously can't get enough of it!!

I used some of the Garden Green DSP (from the Hostess pack) for the "grass" and some more of the Hibiscus Burst ribbon. The stem for the flower is from Verve's set, Thankful Blossoms.




Here is a close up picture.

Oh and stay tuned tomorrow or Sunday for some fun blog candy! It's my birthday and 1 year blogaversary!!! Woot!! So I have some fun stuff and Heidi donated some really fun stuff as well! You won't want to miss this!!

Have a great evening.

Hip Hop -fun trees for dad

Hi everyone and welcome to my second Unity Hip Hop!! If you are in the Hop, you came my way by Kimber. If not, you can go back to the beginning at Angela's blog and see all the Unity fun!!













This week's theme is Father's Day! I wanted something bright and FUN -something my boys could give to Bill! The Tiny Giggle Grove kit was just the ticket! Aren't these trees the BESTEST? I pieced each one with different DP from SU! Jersey Shore. The sentiments are from Verve Stamps. I never make cards this size, but the trees just screamed to be displayed this way!! LOL!

Here is a close up pic. You can click on it for a larger image.

Like last week, I will be chatting in the Hip Hip thread and giving away another prize around 12:30 (Pacific). Stop by, I would love to chat with ya!!

NOW HEAD ON TO:

---CANDACE--- !!!!!