In a word...

No, I haven't dropped off the planet. I simply began to work again. If you remember, I'm a teacher. Yes, the reason for no posts is SCHOOL. I've been so busy I've sadly found no time to create lately... That is, unless I stop sleeping and that is just not pretty.

I promise to try to be better but for now, it is what it is.

Sketch + Colors = 2 Challenges in 1 Card

**2nd post of the day... scroll down for more!**

I've been contemplating the sketch challenge over at The Paper Players for several days.  Once I saw the Celebrity Color Challenge over at Pals Paper Arts, I knew I had a combination winner! 

Click HERE to find out more about The Paper Players current challenge. Here's the sketch... which I flipped on its side...


Click HERE to see the details of the Pals Paper Arts color challenge.  Here is the color scheme...


Here's the card I came up with when I combined these two challenges...

Another card for the stash for my mother-in-law who is undergoing chemo treatments.  I hope these fun colors make her smile! :)

Thanks for stopping by today!  Have a blessed afternoon!
Bethany

What a Challenge!

Okay, so when I saw the Mojo Monday Challenge 202, I was quite intimidated... I mean, triangles... two of them??  But I was determined that I was going to tackle this sketch and make something I could be proud of.. .and I think I did! 

Click HERE for all the details on Mojo 202.  Here's the sketch....












Here's my take on the sketch, using one of my favorite color combos... bright pink, black, & white...

It's hard to see in this pic, but I scored the black panel vertically at every 1/8 inch for a little extra detail.  I also scored the white panel twice horizontally on the top and bottom.   
Thanks for stopping by & looking!  Have a wonderful day!
Bethany

Thanks Ever So Much

Yet another entry into CAS-ual Fridays CFC #13!  (Click HERE to see all of the details for yourself!) 


Here's my last entry... at least for today! :)

                                                                  A view of the full card

A gorgeous flower courtesy of Nina Dee... click HERE to see the details of her blog & ruffled flower tutorial from a previous post. 

Another view with the sentiment

Off to bed!  Have a wonderful weekend!  Thanks for looking!
Bethany

UPDATED 8/4/11... after a very sweet comment from Beth, I haved added this card to the current challenge at The Kraft Journal (which I have now happily added to my bookmarks!).  You can get the details HERE.  Seems like a perfect fit for me since I just CAN'T get enough of kraft right now! :)  Thanks for the info & comment, Beth! :)

Ever Thankful for You

I guess you could say I'm smitten with CAS-ual Fridays current challenge ...CFC #13: the Long & Short of It.  (Click HERE to find out all of the details & to upload your own project!) 


Here's my latest take on a CAS 4 x 9 card...

Wanted to use my new MS edge punch.... did the long edge of the card & added a piece of white underneath to showcase it a little more.  Then I decided to do a white strip to mirror the red edge.  I added a simple black satin bow & a sentiment in black... didn't show up so well because of the lack of natural light. It says "ever thankful for you." 

Have a happy day!
Bethany

Just For You Butterflies

As soon as I saw this sketch at Clean & Simple Stamping, I knew I liked it!  However, it took a little (okay... a LOT!) of playing around with the elements before I finally felt good about it.  Here's the sketch... CONGRATS ladies on getting to sketch 150!! :)



Here's what I came up with...

All of the butterflies are coordinated shades of pink & brown... the one on the far right photographed WAY more coral than it really is! 

Thanks for stopping by!  Hope you have had a wonderful weekend!
Bethany

Guest Sweetie Spot! :)

I'm SO excited & honored to be a guest sweetie this week at Cupcake Inspirations for Challenge #121.  Here is the inspiration (cup)cake for this week...

I was very inspired by all those shades of purple and the many circles used in this photo.  Of course, I needed a pop of green in there as well. 

Here's the card...

 Here's a close up shot of the dimension I added to give it a little "oomph"...

Want to join the fun?  Head on over to Cupcake Inspirations to see for yourself & link up your project to the gallery! :)

Have a happy day!  Thanks for stopping by!

Bethany

The Long & Short of It, Part II

**2nd post of the day... scroll down for more!**

As I said in my last post, I'm loving the challenge at CAS-ual Fridays.  You can click HERE to see this week's challenge... The Long & Short of It. 


So, I was actually inspired to make two cards for this challenge... below is my second entry.

Again, I started with a kraft 4 x9 base.  (Can you say 'addict'???)  I corner rounded the bottom corners to give it a little polishing.  I used some black satin ribbon around the middle.  I adhered that gorgeous ruffled flower ribbon where the edges overlapped.  I kept the rest simple by stamping the sentiment "just for you" in black.  (The stamp is from the dollar bin at Michael's during a recent trip!)   I thought this card offered lots of recipient opportunities! :)

 This gorgeous book print ruffled flower was made by Nina Dee.  I won it (and 2 others) in a giveaway on her blog.  You can visit her blog by clicking HERE.  You can read about how to make a flower like this (via Nina's picture tutorial) by clicking HERE.  Her blog is fabulous... I know you'll find lots of inspiration there!  Thanks, Nina, for such a beautiful handmade embellishment! :)

Yet another view of this clean & simple card! 

I hope you've enjoyed looking around my blog... thanks for stopping by!
Have a wonderful weekend!
Bethany

Clean & Simple...and Paper Pierced

I am really loving CAS-ual Friday challenges.  They really make me think and expand my comfort zone, all while working on perfecting that wonderful CAS style! :)

For more info, click here to find out about their challenge this week. 


So, I made a 4 x 9 card last week for my brother-in-law's birthday... turned out pretty well for a masculine card. This week I made a more feminine version for a loved one...

 If you know me, you know I LOVE hearts!  I started with a kraft 4 x 9 base.  I used the small SU heart punch to punch out lots of white cardstock hearts.  I punched out one red heart to make it 'pop'; I also used a dimensional to make it literally 'pop' out, as you can see from the close up picture below.  The stamp I used really reads "because I love you MOM", but I wanted to keep it more general for future use, so I masked the "MOM" part out.  (I DO love both my mom & mother-in-law, but this just makes for more options in the future! :) )  I also paper pierced a small row of dots under the sentiment to bring a little more attention to it since the card is so very simple. 

The stamp is a rubber cling from Michael's by Studio G.  Here's the close up of the sentiment, popped up red heart, and paper piercing. 

I am also entering this card into Pals Paper Arts Challenge 104 (PPA104): Paper Piercing & CAS.  You can visit their site here to get all of the details of this challenge! :)

I love how this card turned out!  What do you think? 

Thanks for stopping by & for your comments!  Have a fabulous weekend!

Bethany

Clean & Simple... Just For You!

**4th- AND FINAL- post for the day... scroll down for more!**

The Paper Players Challenge #56 was just that for me this week... a challenge!  I LOVE clean & simple designs... but for whatever reason, this sketch had me puzzled for a bit.  After lots of playing around with it... and an hour's worth of "The Closer"... here's what I came up with!

The sketch...


My card...

I love how it turned out! 

Thanks for looking!  Have a blessed day!

Bethany

Square Mojo

**3rd post of the day... scroll down for more!**

As much as I LOVE circles, I chose to be square today for Mojo Monday's Sketch Challenge 201! To be honest, I really wanted to try the circle, but since I don't have any dies, it would require the use of my cricut, which I was afraid would wake up my baby from her nap in it's current position.  Squares, of course, only require a little cutting on the paper cutter... so a square it is!! :)

Here's the sketch...


Here's my take, using one of my favorite color combos... bright pink, black, & white! :)

I think the only thing I changed from the sketch was to make my "tag" a circle... I wanted to play on the embossing, polka dots, & round gems I used on the card.

Thanks for looking!  Have a wonderful afternoon!
Bethany

Just 4 You

**2nd post of the day... scroll down for more!**

This week Cupcake Inspirations has TWO cupcake inspiration images for their Challenge 120.

From this one, I really took the pastel colors- pinks, purples, and such.

From this one, I took the pink & the polka dots. 



Here's the card I made... a little square card... I love how the sentiment plays off the 4 squrares I used on the design! :)

Thanks for looking!  Enjoy your day!

Bethany
 

Hugs & Kisses

So, after playing with those rub-ons last week, I just had to dig deeper in my stash & found some stickers that I thought would go well with the challenge this week at CAS-ual Fridays (CFC12). 


I used only some Making Memories stickers & my trusty Cuttlebug for this card... very clean & simple, indeed! 

Ta-da!  Another card to add to my stash for my mother-in-law. :)  I know she'll smile thinking it came from my sweet little one. :)

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a fantastic day!
Bethany

A Challenge, For Sure

I've LOVED participating in the challenges at CAS-ual Fridays.  They are helping me expand my creativity & cardmaking abilities.  When I got on this morning and saw this week's challenge- rub ons & stickers- I knew it would truly be a challenge for me.  One reason I prefer cardmaking to scrapbooking is because you can do so much with stamps and you don't need to rely on stickers, alphabets, and rub-ons so much.  I think many are beautiful, but they also tend to be an added expense for this frugal stamper.  However, during my last trip to Michael's, I bought some value packs of Making Memories embellishments that were on clearance... since I can't resist a good deal, I bought them.  After a quick look, I found some rub-ons to try that were in those large packs of embellishments.  So... here's my attempt at using rub-ons.  I kept it very clean & simple... and I actually made two! :)

CAS-ual Fridays CFC12

 The center ribbon is really a deep purple that matches the center of the flower.  For this card, the flower & sentiment are both rub ons. 

For this card, I ONLY used rub ons.  (A first for me, for sure!)

It's a little overcast again today... so my lighting wasn't the best.  It's so hot & it wants to rain, but I don't think it will. 

I hope you like my attempts! 

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a fantastic weekend!
Bethany

One Sketch... Two Ways

Pals Paper Arts is having a sketch challenge for PPA103.  Here's the sketch...



I used this sketch to create my card two different ways... one in the orientiation shown above & one with the same exact elements but flipped 180 degrees.

The original orientation...

And now it's flipped...

I think I like both equally well... what do you think?  I LOVE your comments.

Have a blessed day!
Bethany

Clean & Simple... AGAIN!

Here's the sketch from Clean & Simple Stamping that I seem to be addicted to...


I made the following cards in sets of 4 for an upcoming family reunion of my husband's.  At this particular reunion, they always have a 'live' auction of goodies brought by the entire family. I've made handmade greeting cards for the past several years, and they've always fetched a pretty penny to go towards the next year's reunion.  Here's hoping they do the same this year...

I'd love to know what you think.  I appreciate all comments that you take the time to leave!

Have a fantastic day!  Thanks for stopping by!
Bethany

Just Can't Get Enough!

I cannot get enough of this sketch over at Clean & Simple Stamping. 



Here are 2 more cards I made using this sketch... I LOVE how they turned out.  What do you think? 

You know I LOVE and appreciate your comments... won't you take a minute to tell me what you think? 
THANK YOU!  THANK YOU!  THANK YOU!

Have a blessed day!  Thanks so much for stopping by & taking a look around!
Bethany

Splitcoast Sketch x 2

I really liked this week's Splitcoast Stampers Sketch (SC342).  Here is the sketch...



Here's the second card I made with this sketch.  The first card was on my last post. 

As you can see, I flipped the sketch on its side this time. 

If you'd like to visit my Splitcoast gallery, click here. 

Hope you had a wonderful day!
Thanks for looking!!

Bethany

Studio Challenge 2

A Muse Studio's Studio Stampers blog has posted their second challenge...
here's the photo inspiration...



I was inspired to make a flower using a technique I saw on Nina Dee's blog... here's her card that got me thinking about technique...



I wanted to try using SU's itty bitty punch pack to make a larger, hydrangea looking flower.  Though the flower at the top isn't a hydrangea, I like all the delicate little flowers on the top right.

I also used the current Splitcoast card sketch (SC342) for inspiration...



Here is my card...

Let me know your thoughts!  I LOVE your comments!

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a wonderful evening!
Bethany