Amaryllis Tag

This is the November stamp release week at Flourishes, and I always love playing along with their new release challenges. Yesterday's noontime challenge is called "Tag, You're It," and the challenge is simply to make a tag (or a creation with a tag on it). Here's what I made this morning:

I used three different Flourishes sets to make this monochromatic tag: A Year in Flowers 3 (amaryllis), Paperwhites (sentiment), and the retired Holly Background.

You know I don't have a die for cutting the tag. I bought some baker's twine from an Etsy seller last year, and the twine came wound around a lovely tag diecut. I simply traced around it on some kraft cardstock and cut out my own! The hole reinforcer is 1/2" circle I punched from chocolate chip cardstock. After gluing it to my tag, I punched a hole through both layers with my Crop-A-Dile.

The beautiful ribbon came in a collection of blog candy won from the fabulous Christine Okken.

I'm off to visit a friend for lunch soon (with those yummy peanut clusters in tow). Have a super day--I certainly plan to!!
Emily

Festive Amaryllis

OK, everybody, this is Amaryllis: Take Two!!

Earlier in the week I posted this monochromatic amaryllis card and explained that I was hoping to play in Flourishes' October Christmas Spirit Challenge, which is 1 stamp, 2 looks! Basically the idea is to take one Flourishes Christmas stamp and use it to design two different cards with completely different looks. Well, this amaryllis stamp I have from Flourishes Calendar Set 3 is the only Flourishes Christmas-y stamp I have, so this challenge really appealed to me!!Anyway, I finally got around to making my second card for this challenge and had a great time doing it. I colored the amaryllis image with Prismacolor pencils and odorless mineral spirits.

I'd love to hear what you think of this pair of cards. This was a really fun challenge--so glad I played along! :)

Challenges:

• SCS color challenge CC292: to use pink pirouette, real red, and pear pizzazz. I had to substitute on all of these, but I think I got pretty close. I went with SU certainly celery, which is a bit lighter than pear pizzazz on the scalloped frame, and a shade darker (with MFP Spring Leaf) on the card base.
• Flourishes Release Week challenge, FLLCOCT10, a sketch found HERE
• Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge, FTTC88, to use ink and edge distressing. If you look carefully, you can see one or the other or both on most all of my layers.
• Flourishes' October Christmas Spirit Challenge, FLLCNOEL6, which is 1 stamp, 2 looks!

I hope you had a terrific week and are enjoying your weekend!! Thanks for dropping by to check out my little slice of bliss. :)

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Flourishes Calendar Set 3
Paper: SU certainly celery CS, MFP spring leaf CS, DCWV Mat Stacks DP, various CS from The Paper Company
Ink: Palette noir black, Palette haystack (sponged on for edge distressing)
Accessories: SU word window punch, MS deco fan border and corner punches, CM oval cutting system, sewing machine, sponge, paper distresser, Prismacolor pencils, OMS, paper blending stumps, foam tape, red rhinestones, pink grosgrain ribbon, Bow-Easy
Techniques: Gamsol Magic, machine stitching, distressing

Monochromatic Amaryllis

A quick post to share this monochromatic Christmas card I made today.
This was for today's Splitcoast Clean and Simple Challenge, CAS88, to be inspired by the word "Crinkle." I was inspired to add a panel of crimped, or "crinkled," card stock.

I also made this for Flourishes' Timeless Tuesday Challenge, FTTC87, which was to use this sketch. I am also hoping to enter this card as one of a pair (to be completed later!) for Flourishes' October Christmas Spirit Challenge, which is 1 stamp, 2 looks! Basically the idea is to take one Flourishes Christmas stamp and use it to design two different cards with completely different looks. This amaryllis stamp I have from Flourishes Calendar Set 3 is the only Flourishes Christmas-y stamp I have, so this challenge really appealed to me!! I'm hoping to be back later in the week to complete the other half of this challenge. :) To be continued . . .

Today is Columbus Day, so our kids had the day off from school. I've been really busy this weekend getting projects ready for the Mark's Finest Papers October Blog Hop, which starts tomorrow. (There will be blog candy from MFP, so be sure to check back Tuesday through Friday this week!) Anyway, since I was wrapped up for most of the weekend, I let the kids pick a few favorite activities to do today as a treat. They requested Chuck E. Cheese and a trip to their favorite playground park. I don't mind taking them to CEC for the arcade games and play space a few times a year, as long as it isn't busy (as a rule, we never eat there, just play). So we decided to arrive right when they opened at 9 a.m. and we were delighted to have the entire place to ourselves for well over an hour!! The kids had received a gift of CEC tokens from their grandparents when we visited with them in August, so it didn't even cost us anything. They had a blast playing their favorite games and picking some prizes, and I got to be a hero for taking them. The tokens ran out just as other customers started to arrive, and we took that as our sign to leave. Sweet!

After mac & cheese for lunch here at home, we headed out to their favorite playground, Kid Spot, at a nearby town park. Aside from being a tiny bit cool (sweater weather!), it was a good day to play outside, and they played hard for an hour and a half while I sat on a bench reading a magazine that had been put aside all weekend while I worked. A wonderful break for all of us!!

Thanks for stopping by to check out my little slice of bliss for today!! See you again soon! :)

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Flourishes Calendar Set 3
Paper: Pink Paislee 365 Degrees DP , white & red card stock from The Paper Company
Ink: Versamark, Palette l'amore red
Accessories: SU scallop trim border, CM circle cutting system, SU modern label punch, paper crimper, dimensionals
Techniques: Poppin' Pastels

Christmas in July

Don't you just love getting fun mail? I sure do!! Yesterday afternoon I received a real treat. It was just like Christmas in July!!! I participated in the Gallery Comments Contest on Splitcoaststampers last month, and I found out on July 1 that I was one of five randomly drawn winners. Boy, was I surprised! Anyway, my prize package, sent by the sweet contest hostess, Anita, arrived yesterday. Just take a look at the fun goodies she sent me! And all for doing something I enjoy doing anyway, browsing the galleries of fantastic card creations on SCS and commenting on the cards I like. Sweet!

And speaking of Christmas in July, that is what the card I enjoyed making today is all about! I was inspired by these colors
and this card sketch.

I was also inspired by a third challenge to try my hand at making my own buttons, either from fabric, paper, plastic, polymer clay, wool, etc. I had read about making faux buttons from paper on the {ippity} blog in May, so that's the route I took. I'm glad I tried it, but I doubt I'll make faux buttons again. I have so many actual buttons in my vast collection, in so many different colors, that I can't imagine many situations in which I'd need to make my own! And I have to say, it was rather time consuming. So, been there, done that, don't need to return. Finally, here's my result of all that inspiration.

Oh, there's one more thing I wanted to say about my Christmas in July card. A few days ago I saw this fabulous card by fellow SCSer KopyKat. I thought her image treatment was just beautiful! I've tried this Poppin' Pastels technique with chalks before, but was never happy with it. So I was determined to try it again and did so on this card with that fabulous amaryllis image from Flourishes. I'm much happier with my results this time around and so pleased with my first Christmas card of the year!

For the supplies used in this card project, please click here. Thanks for stopping by!