What's Cooking?

The challenge for day 143 was to include something related to cooking.  With all this fun summer activity - I was hoping to create a scene of some sort with a dutch oven over a fire, or at a camping scene.  Not because I enjoy dutch ovens (actually...I think they're too much work) but mostly because when I think of camping I'm reminded of girl's camp I use to attend every year - and of course that included a meal or two from a dutch oven. :)
This also counts for Basic Grey's 25th challenge of including stitching (the patterned paper conveniently had stitching on it. :D)
Anyway - here's what I came up with instead.

Recipe: Recipe: Basic Grey Pearls, Basic Grey Cup of Tea Stamp, SRM sticker, Studio 18 Sticker, DCWV's Flower Shower stack sdf

EEK!

Yikes! Has it really been over 2 weeks since I posted anything? I promise to make it up with a very full "Catchin' Up" post tomorrow! 

Plus, some excitement is coming this month (aside from my hubby coming home!! YAY!).  Stay tuned!

More catching up!

Like I've said before - I am SO far behind on the 365 Card challenges....so be ready for more posts like this!
Day 76 - Criss Cross something on your card - I did super simple for this - used a criss crossed patterned paper.

Recipe: Image is from an Operation Write Home's Image swap - Thanks Julie Craig! Patterned paper is from DCWV's Flower Shower stack.
Day 79 - Use only these colors: pale blue, dark blue, red, grey and white

Recipe: Patterned paper is from DCWV's Stack 6, Ribbon is from Stampin' Up, Stamp is from Ippity
Day 87 - Use something from nature on your card.

Recipe: Ribbon is from Stampin' Up, Sentiment is from Curvy Verses by Stampin' Up.
Day 88 - Use 3 different insects on a card.

Recipe: Stamps from Bugs & Kisses Stampin' Up set. 
Day 96 - Use only these colors: Pink, Green, Yellow, Orange and Purple.  I got this idea from a recent card done by Kristina Werner on her blog. She is so creative and I gain a lot of ideas and techniques from her.

 Recipe: "Thank You" sentiment from SRM Stamps, Patterened paper from DCWV's Flower Shower Stack, Gem brad is from Making Memories, Woodgrain stamp is from Stampin' Up.
Day 123 -

Recipe: Card base is from Lasting Impressions. Sentiment is from Stampin' Up. Image is a digi from Polly Craft Designs.
And finally - Day 135 was a White Space challenge with this sketch:

Here's my creation: 

Recipe: Patterned paper and Quote tag is from Cloud 9 Designs Cinnamin Sticks.

OWH Blog Tour Winner....

There were a total of 31 comments.  Random.org choose number 18!

Which was:

Marlene Diefendorf said...

Very cute card. Love the peek-a-boo effect. Happy 4th!

Congrats!!! Be sure to email me through my profile your information so I can get your prize out this week!

OWH Blog Tour!

If you're here from OWH's Blog Tour - Welcome!!! If not, but sure to check it out - lots of bloggers participating in the tour today to celebrate our nation's birthday!  Click here to see more creations: Operation Write Home Stars and Stamps.

So, in honor of the tour - this is my creation.  I wanted to make a card that was pretty gender neutral and good for any age - I hope that's how this card comes across:

Since the front of the card is cut out - this also qualifies for the challenge 365 to create a Peek A Boo effect.

Leave a comment and you'll also be entered to win some blog candy from me!!

Now head on back to OWH to check out more of these fun birthday cards!!

Recipe: Paper is from Scenic Route, Happy Birthday phrase is from Close to My Heart.

Time to play catch up!!

 I'm going to keep it short since I have so many cards here!

For day 65 we were challenged to include the following: An Arc, An Alpha Sticker, and make it for an Anniversary.  I must say - this is not a good card. I don't like it at all - this is what hafppens when you try making a card when you're exhausted and sick.  Please keep that in mind when looking at this disaster!!! (We all have them, right???)

Recipe: Flower stamp from BG's Insignia Flourishes Stamp Set. Alpha letters are from Thickers.

For day 69 we were challenged to use the following:  Twine, Tree and a  Triangle

Recipe: Twine is from SEI, Stamps are from Stampin' Up's Trendy Tree Set.

For day 70 we were challenged to use this sketch:

Recipe: My Mind's Eye Products - paper and star is all from the Dreamy 2 Brilliant line.

Day 71 - Do the Decade: 1920's - This one I really wasn't sure what to do - but after some searching and thinking I came up with a hat shaped card - and I must say I totally {heart} this card!!!

Recipe: Found an image of a Cloche style hat - used that image to create a template on my Sure Cuts A Lot. 

Ribbon is from Making Memories.

Day 74 - Use 4 buttons and 4 bows!

Recipe: Paper from Basic Grey - Two Scoops. Image is from Ippity's Music of My Heart set

Day 75 - Include the following: Make a card that is 4.25x5.5, stripes, 2 patterned papers, a sentiment stamp and an image stamp.  I used the patterned papers to create stripes.  Looking at it now I wish I had sponged the edges of the sentiment and flower with a brown shade. 

Recipe: Will be added soon.

Day 78 we were challenged to "Imagine Money" when creating a card.

Recipe: CTMH's "Let's Shop" stamp set, Patterned paper is Basic Grey's Indian Summer

Day 111 - Use a Silhouette with black & white

Recipe: Image from Ippity's Because of You set

Day 120 - Use 3 shades of green.  This card also meets the following

• Critter Sketch Challenge - 

• Meljen's challenge to use or create a tag or bookmark

Recipe: All products except pearls are from a Colorbok set by Modern Basic. Pearls are from Basic Grey.

Day 121 was to use 3 different shades of red.

Recipe:  Music of My Heart Set from Ippity, Red paper from The Paper Company

For day 122 - 3 shades of blue
This challenge also fits the Sweet Sunday Sketch for week 75 -

Recipe: Image from Pollycraft colored with Prismacolor pencils, patterned paper from a DCWV stack.  Flowers and scallop edge was a blog candy prize I received from a Stampin' Up distributor, Pearls are from Basic Grey.

Supersized!

This was done a couple weeks ago for the little boy I baby sit.  It fits the 365 Cards 97th challenge - to make a card that is 5.5x8.5.

More cards.

First off is for 365 Cards Day 98 (I am seriously SO behind on these challenges! Expect a bunch of posts in the coming few weeks of me playing catch up!) - The challenge was a sketch - here's what I did:

This one is for the Bugaboo Sketch Challenge from 6/13. Specifically I made it for a friend's who has a daughter with a birthday coming up.  I love how it turned out:

I'm trying to work through the images I've received from the Operation Write Home images swaps - this was one of them, and I love the background paper. It'll make a great AnyHero Card!

Another card I made for my friend - do you have any idea how hard it is to find white paper with blue pinstripes? After checking Joann's, Robert's and Heartland Paper - I decided I'd have to make it myself on the drawing program on my computer - luckily, it worked!

Another one created for my friend - her little monkey turns one this year!

Recipies: 
Card 1 - Stamped image is from Unity's America Set, Stamping in the background is from CTMH's Snap, Crackle, Pop set, Ribbon is from Stampin' Up.
Card 2 - Birthday phrase from SRM Stickers, Ribbon is from Stampin' Up, Patterned paper is from DCWV's Nana's Kids Stack, Pearls are from Basic Grey, Image is from Bodilsscrappeverden.blogspot.com, Green paper is from Pebbles Inc.'s Easter Time stack. 
Card 3 - Image from Unity's America Set, Paper from Scenic Route
Card 4 - NY cut from my Cricut, striped paper created by me. Shape from a template found on Splitcoast Stampers - here 
Card 5 - Paper and monkey from DCWV's Nana's Kids Stack.

Woodgrain.

This was made for Color Throwdown's 95th challenge - which has passed.  This also counts for 365 Cards 89th challenge - to use a phrase or saying that's about courage or strength.  The background stamp is from Stampin Up, and the phrase is from Ippity.

It's time! My first review!

So - as I stated in a previous post I woke up to an email from CSNStores.com.  I've never shopped with them before so it was a bit surprising of an email to get.  They offered to give me or a reader of my blog a $40 gift certificate to their site.  Since they don't have much in the way of craft stuff and this is a craft blog - I decided I'd use the certificate and do a review.  I didn't feel like I could recommend a company I had never used before - especially since they didn't focus on craft supplies.
In searching their site they have TONS of stuff - but as I said, only a few craft related items.  I decided to try the Prismacolor Premier colored pencils. I choose to get the 48 count and pay the difference - plus it's on sale with free shipping!
Usually when you get free shipping from a company it's the slowest shipping available - but not this time! I placed my order on Tuesday, June 8th, and I received them yesterday, the 10th! Very impressive shipping time.
As far as the website - it was easy to navigate, easy to make a purchase from, and has a huge variety of products.  The only thing I didn't like about is that it doesn't have any customer reviews - which I really can't fault the company for since they do offer customers to review the product.

So on to the review! I choose the colored pencils because of the digi craze! When I color in pencil - the only pencils I have and use are my daughter's Crayola colored pencils.  They have great colors but are always breaking, making me have to sharpen them again and again. 

Something I didn't like about the Prismacolor pencils is that a few of them are cracked - I assume from when they imprinted the name onto the pencil - it's not a very good picture, but hopefully you can see the way the pencil has impact mark on it.

The differences I noticed when coloring the image from Meljen Designs is that the Prismacolor pencils are a lot smoother.  The colors are also richer than Crayola.

The first is Crayola.  The second is Prismacolor.  

I tried to use similar colors while coloring - but didn't match them perfectly.  Either way you can see that the Prismacolors gave a darker coloring because of their richness.  The Crayola pencils kept breaking apart while I colored the image, while the Prismacolors left only a few little pieces.  In both you can still see the lines. I didn't blend the coloring with oil (or whatever technique it is people use to lessen the pencil markings).  I haven't done that technique before and wanted it clear the way the pencils mark - hopefully I did that.

If you really enjoy coloring digis with colored pencil - after this experience, a cheapskate like me, thinks that going for a higher quality pencil is definitely worth it.

And here is what I did with the final images - using the sketch from PaperWorks Co. Blog 

Exciting news!

Shortly after getting out of bed this morning I received an unexpected email. 
It was a request to do a review!! So please keep an eye out for that! It'll be very exciting - and (hopefully) helpful!

Doing some catch up!

(Some of these may look familiar since I created them for the OWH Blog Hop.)
On day 77 we were challenged to use this sketch:

Recipe: Flower stamp from Ippity's Now & Always Set, Vellum is from Making Memories, "Miss You" sentiment from a Fiskars stamp set.
Day 84 we were challenged to use this sketch:

Recipe: Stamps from Close To My Heart's Snap Crackle Pop Set.
This card was completed for the OWH blog hop.  The Stamping Boutique was so kind to offer some amazing free digital images for the hop and I was a lucky one who got to use them early! Yay! 

Recipe: Paper - The Paper Company's Silver Stars, "Thanks" stamp from Ippity's The Simply Things set, Ribbon from Stampin' Up, Image from The Stamping Boutique.

• Unscripted Sketch 57
• Day 72 - Add dimension to image.
• Practical Scrappers,  Use acrylic, vellum or transparency
• Paper Sundaes Use the colors kraft and blue.

Recipe: Butterfly is from Ippity's Now & Always Set; Pearl is from Kaiser Scrapbook; "Thanks" phrases are from Ippity's The Simple Things, Stampin' Up's Best Blossoms, Stampin' Up's Trendy Trees and Stampin' Up's Upsy Daisy; "Many Thanks" sticker is from SRM Stickers; Vellum is from Making Memories; ribbon is from SEI - chick-a-dee.

For day 92, 365 Cards challenged us to use tissue paper.  When I read this challenge I knew exactly what to use.  A few days prior I had gone to Victoria's Secrets and they always give you gorgeous tissue paper in their bags - and that's exactly what I used.  I wasn't sure what to add because of the color of the paper - but this is what I came up with.  

Recipe: Tissue Paper from Victoria's Secrets, Floral stamp from Stampin' Up's Upsy Daisy set, Thanks stamp from Ippity's The Simple Things Set.