Little Sea Monkey...

Started this card Sunday evening, worked on it Monday evening, and finished it up at 4 AM Tuesday morning after 2 cups of coffee - should get a lot done at work today!

I am entering this cute little floating monkey in the following challenges:

ABC Challenge - B is for Blue

Color Throwdown - to use Crumbcake (kraft), celery green, soft sky and Chocolate Chip

Cupcake Craft Challenge - to use the colors blue and green

Stamp, Scrap and Doodle Saturday Challenge - use Crumbcake (kraft)

The Belli Challenge - use round and metal

Charisma Cardz - use die cuts

Cooking It Up with Katie - Tie some String or Twine, Add some Water (in the technique, image or theme),

Finish with a Punch

Designed 2 Delight - to use the cutey monkey image

Digital Tuesday - use water on the project

Double Delight Challenge - use ribbon, string or twine, "Oh, My!"

If the Shoe Fits - use metal

Stamp Challenge - digi day, mine is from Designed 2 Delight (see above)

The Shabby Tea Room - a little bit of metal

Totally Stampalicious - 2 textures, mine is embossing and the twine

Practical Scrapers - water theme

Cowgirls Sunday Stampin Challenge - Summer time feeling theme

Paper Craft Star Challenge - inspiration picture, I picked the colors of soft blue, green and brown

Sweet Sunday Sketch - I followed it really close! Click in the link to see it...

Eberybody's Art Challenge - a sea/beach theme

Paper Cutz Challenge - anything goes!

Stampin for the Weekend - anything goes!

TreeHouse Thursday Challengee Challenge - Under the Sea theme

Thanks for stopping by:  SAM

Fall Flowers...

Well, again, this card ended up totally different than where it started from. As I tell my daughter, Kim, "This road will take us to where ever it is going!" But I like the results, not the color scheme I would have picked, but it is good to get out of the box and try something new!

I worked  really hard to use all Stampin' Up products, well, except for the background. I sponged natural white with a Chai tea bag (after I made a cup to drink) then I sprinkled it with instant coffee granules. My card wasn't as wet as it needed to be so I misted it with water and then it melted into the card stock. I dabbed with a paper towel (wish I had skipped that part). It looked too flat so I wrinkled it up while it was still wet. Then I mixed a little water with summer yellow re-inker and spritzed again. I dried it with a heat gun and then stacked a heavy box on it to flatten it out some. I also spritz it with Vanilla Shimmer to give it some glitz. I got this idea from The Pixie Cottage tutorial posted today.

I am entering this card in the following challenges -

365 Cards, Day 171, Wacky Color Wednesday to use Brown, Grey, and Yellow. Be sure to check out the DT card too - that's my daughter Kim!  (insert one proud mama!  :)

I used the Clean and Simple Sketch for the layout.

Incy Wincy Designs to use yellow.

Let's Ink It Up FIRST challenge is Anything Goes with a twist - I guess it's a lemon twist because they want to see some yellow!  Good luck with the new challenge!

The Pink Elephant to use ribbon and sparkles - look close (enlarge pic) and you'll see the 'smooch'!

Res-Q Challenge is looking for therapy ideas! Well, I tried a new technique on the card and that was fun and wrinkling the card stock was really good therapy!

Speedy the Cat's Challenge at Mark's Finest Papers is to make a Harvest Card.

Thanks for stopping by!  SAM

Sit On a Pumpkin!

No not really! It's the quote I used by Henry David Thoreau. What a hard card to take a picture of...just couldn't get the light or the focus quite right. Uhmmm, wait a minute, it's an automatic focus...enough said about my camera skills!

Here is the card...

This is another card by Designed to Delight Digital Stamps, Happy Harvest. I received this digi free by participating in last week's challenge. You can grab this from the store if you would like to join in. Whatever you decide, be watching for the first free digi she gives away at the beginning of the month and then join in for a free digi each week. Along with D2D, you can also use the digi to join in Double Delight to make a clean and simple card. Her definition of CAS is to make it less than an hour. I hope that doesn't count all the time it takes me to make up my feeble mind including the time I keep changing it!  LOL! I'm pretty sure I'm the only one in that pumpkin patch...

I went with a non-traditional fall color scheme by following the Color Create Challenge to use the following picture for an inspiration, being sure to include ivory, duck egg blue plus one other color, I went with mellow moss although it doesn't show well in the pic.

I also am entering this in the Fab n' Funky Challenge to use your favorite colors. Besides the Mellow Moss, I used Soft Sky from SU!. Too bad it's retired, I LOVE IT!

The sketch I followed is from Card Patterns Challenge and is shown below.

One Stitch At a Time asked for punches, took me 3 different tries to settle on the leaf border. Also for Alphabet Challenge "P" is for punches.

Enjoy your day!

SAM

Back to School!

Once upon a time there was a lady with 3 boys! One day, her youngest son started Kindergarten, her middle son began his first year in high school and her oldest is heading off for his last year of college. What a spread of years for these young men!

Anyway - I made a card to welcome the youngest to Kindergarten, decided her middle son would have his feelings hurt if he didn't get one (after all, I was there when he started Kindergarten, just didn't make cards back them) and then I knew the oldest would enjoy a card from Mrs. McDonald, since he started Kindergarten the first year I started teaching Kindergarten! Whew, shouldn't have said all that, it's making me feel old!

So here is the card I made for the oldest son:

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

The Cat's Pajamas for the color scheme of denim, kraft and candy apple red - gorgeous!

Hand Stamped Sentiment to follow this inspiration photo.

Pals Paper Arts to KISS (Keep It Simple, Sweetie) challenge, make it a masculine.

Hand Full of Stamps to think of September and October, I though about back to school.





The next card is for the son starting High School - Go Knights!

This card is being entered in the following challenges:

Treehouse Thursday Challenge  - Back to school theme

Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge is looking for a man's world.

Stampin' for the Weekend is going back to school

ABC Challenge is focusing on the letter A, which for my school district is going back to work/back to school!

The Wildflower Patch wants embossing

Sentimental Sunday is anything goes!

Friday Sketchers to use their sketch
Alphabet Challenge to use ovals for 'O'
The Shabby Tearoom to use the soft, neutral and shimmery colors in the photo or the theme ... or BOTH!

And the final card is for the youngest son, one that I made sometime ago so I won't be entering it in any

challenges.

Thanks for stopping by!

SAM

A Sweet Happy Birthday...

A cutey of a Teddy Bear from Delightful Inspiration. This little bear digi is free this week and if you enter your card, you'll get another free digi next week. I didn't play along in July but I'm hoping I make it every week this month. To go along with this challenge, you can also use this digi to play at Double Delight Challenge which this week is challenging with the sketch I used. I also used the following challenges for inspiration on this card...

Joan's Gardens inspired the pink/white color theme and the 4 punched corners. She asked us to use a MS corner punch but allowed other punches if you didn't have one. I have several MS punches but alas, no corners!

Stamp Something Challenge with a photo inspiration with a lot of pink at a birthday party.

Sweet Stampin Challenge to be "Pretty in Pink".

And, Tuesday Throwdown to use a monochromatic color theme.

To embellish the following challenges were wonderful inspirations...

Fab n' Funky  to be spotty, dotty, and stretchy stripes.

Raise the Bar Challenge to use 'Pearly Whites"

Cute Card Thursday "Whateva!"

Cas-Tastic Wednesday Challenge to CASE a DT member, I chose Karen!

Crafty Card Makers is spotlighting punches, of which I used several, the circles and corners.

Operation Write Home Stars and Stamps to use patterned paper.

Stampin' Moments to make it round, I did circles and rounded the corners of each layer.

Pile It On to use butterflies, bees, or bugs

Frosted Designs to 'Celebrate Life'.

By the Cute and Girly to zoo animals, wild animals and even animals in fiction.

Challenge Up Your Life also is challenging us with a Celebration theme.

Charisma Cards wants Teddy Bears.

Corrosive Challenge is having a baby theme.

Creative Card Crew wants to see 'Cute and Girly!'

Flutter By Wednesday is an open challenge.

Penny's Challenge says 'Anything Goes'.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day!

A Posie and A Pocket...

Well, after a short vacation (to SU! 1010 Convention and a vacation with my DD Kim) I finally made a card! A pretty simple card but it still took me all day to get it done! Thanks Kimmy for your encouragement to get my creative juices flowing...

This is a pocket card, the white insert pulls out, just a great place to leave a little note. The flower is made by punching heart shapes and sticking them to a 'sticky circle'. All supplies are SU! except for the brad and the heart punch I used.  I am entering this card in the following challenges:

Curtain Call Challenge at Stampin' with Stacy with the colors in the following picture -

The sketch I used is from Our Creative Corner as shown in the following picture -

The next challenge I was inspired by is the challenge at Artful Inkables to 'Think Pockets'.

And to embellish the card I used the following challenges for inspiration:

Craftalicious  to  make your own flower

Cooking It Up with Katie to follow the recipe buttons, bows and blue

Everything But the Kitchen Sink to use buttons

Fab 'n Funky to use buttons and bows

The Anything Goes Challenge to use Punches

Alphabet Challenge to use Nature and that would be the flower

The Dutch Dare Card Challenge is anything goes

and Paper Play Challenge is also anything goes

Before I sign off I want to show you a 'not so good' picture of the card fronts I made for Stampin' Up 2010 Convention in Salt Lake City, Uhaul, oh, I mean Utah - the GPS had some sound system disorder in pronouncing words!

It was so much fun swapping and meeting so many fellow stampers. I decided before convention that I want to take the card fronts I collected in my swaps and attach them to Card Stock to make compleete cards for Operation Write Home. That is next on my to-do list, oh yeah, and go back to work this week...oh well, all good things must come to an end and I really used this summer for a vacation!