Once Upon a "Monthly"? Challenge

Hi and Happy Monday! I hope you all had a wonderful Easter and spent happy times with your loved ones.

It's time once again for Elena (The Redhaired Girl)and I to post our cards for the,
Once Upon a Monthly Challenge we started last year. Of course I've been a bit of a procrastinator and so it's become more of a bi-monthly challenge but one that I truly enjoy. You will not want to miss the darling card that I received from Elena for the challenge. Here's a bit of a peek:

So PLEASE stop by her blog, check out her fabulous and oh so cute card with some wonderful little ribbon flowers that you will just fall in love with. I know I did. Then don't forget to leave some comment love because we all like to hear that our work is appreciated.

For the "theme" this time around Elena picked (Ribbon) and not just tie a plain old bow but something different. Well I must say I found this to be a challenge because I'm more of a tie a plain old bow type of stamper (I'm still trying to figure out how to use the Bow Easy). But I persevered and after some searching I found this tutorial on Becca Feeken's blog (Amazing Grace) and decided that I could handle this one. Thanks Becca and Elena for getting me out of my bow tieing "rut" and coming up with something that I really liked how it turned out.

So here is my card:

Not a great deal of stamping on this card since the only thing stamped is the sentiment.

Card Details:
Card Stock: Tangerine Tango, Bermuda Bay,Whisper White.-SU
Designer Paper: My Mind's Eye-Bloom and Grow line
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black and Apricot Appeal-SU (sponged on).
Sentiment Stamp - AnnaBelle Stamps (Easter Hope)
Other: Butterfly Die - A.Muse Studio
Nestabilitie Circle Dies
Pearls - A.Muse Studio - Dyed with Copic Markers
Border Punch - EK Success
Orange Satin Ribbon - A.Muse Studio
Needle and Orange Thread.

That's it...the tutorial is easy to follow and the result looks fabulous(IMO).

Have a wonderful week and try not to eat to much Easter Candy (come on you know you'll eat some)!

We're Back!

Hi! You might recall that my blogging friend Elena (aka - The Redhaired Girl) and I started a challenge with each other last year. We named the challenge: Once Upon A Monthly Challenge.
Each month we trade off picking a theme and then make and send a card to each other using the theme.
Well we started out great but towards the end of last year I began having issues getting my cards ready on time and eventually we just stopped. Well I'm happy to say, We're back and hopefully this year I can do a better job keeping up and getting my cards made and mailed off to Elena.
So without further ado our theme for this month is:
So Many Hearts...and here is the card that I made and sent to Elena:

I had so much fun with this card. In fact I even managed to decorate the inside of the card as well:

I just love the stamps that I used. They are from There She Goes Clear Stamps and the set is called: Love Birds.

One fun little detail that I really liked were the tiny Zva Pearls I added to the hearts. Here is a close-up so you can see them a little better.

Now pop on over to Elena's Blog
and check out the totally "adorable" card that she sent me. It's just so darling. I loved everything about her card. She has a fabulous way with colors, her sewing is awesome and the image is so cute it just made me smile the minute I pulled the card out of the envelope.

Card Details: Card Stock: Rose Red, Pretty in Pink,Whisper White. Designer Paper, Source Unknown
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Copic Markers
Small Pearls: Zva
Heart Pearls: AnnaBelle Stamps
Circle Nestabilitie Dies
Oval Punches: SU
Heart Embossing Folder: Cuttlebug
Sponge, Foam Mounting Tape
Ribbon: SU retired.

Once Upon A Monthly Challenge #4 - Fall is in the Air

Hello friends.  It's time once again for Elena and I to post our: Once Upon A Monthly Challenge card to each other.  Seems like anymore it's taking us 2 months to get cards posted (I'm the SLOW one) but we hope you are enjoying our challenges even if we are late posting them.  So without further ado here is the challenge this month.

Elena picked a Fall/Autumn theme for our challenge.   You won't want to miss seeing the card she sent me so be sure to pop by her blog to see her card for this challenge.  I absolutely love Fall next to Spring it is my favorite season so this theme was right up my alley.

I found an adorable stamp set, (Doodle Fall - Inkadinkado) and just knew I had to have this set.  Isn't that Scarecrow adorable.  I colored the image with Prisma Color Pencils and used a cloud template to add some clouds and sponged in the grass. I paired my image up with my new Basic Grey-Pyrus paper.  It has some awesome patterns/colors.  I love this one because of the fun little trees.  I also used a darker piece for the scalloped portion of the card.  The ribbon is from (American Crafts).  I thought it went fairly decent with the colors of the designer paper.  The greeting is from (Hero Arts).

I even did the inside of the card - Sometimes that's fun to do and really adds to the over all theme of the card.

You've just got to stop by Elena's blog (The Redhaired Girl) and check out the absolutely AWESOME card that she sent me for this challenge.  It is just adorable.

Take care and if you feel inclined to try out our challenge leave us a link to your card in the comment section on our blogs.

Once Upon A Monthly Challenge #3

Hi,  Welcome to the latest addition of OUMC (Once Upon A Monthly Challenge) that my friend Elena and I started a couple of months ago.  This time I was Challenge Hostess and picked out this Inspiration Photo for us to make our cards from.  I found this photo at Pottery Barn sometime back and now can't locate the original but that shouldn't matter  I loved the colors of this bedding ensemble and created my card around that.

My "blue" tone is a bit different then the IP but pretty close.  I used one of my Papertrey Ink stamp sets, Flutterby Friend for this card.  I started first by stamping the leaves in Kiwi Kiss ink and then the flowers with Baja Breeze ink.  So far so good...then it came time to mount this to card stock and would you believe I could not find a piece of Baja Breeze cs anywhere.  I wasn't about to stamp the image panel again so I kept searching and finally found 2 pieces (one pretty much wrinkle up that I salvaged enough out of to mount the image on and then another piece that I made the card base from.

Now that my card is posted I just found out that I could have stamped my flowers differently as I missed seeing that there is a small stem piece in the set which is designed to use with the leaves that I stamped.  Oh well (live and learn) and it really doesn't look bad stamped this way too.

I recreated the look of the Rattan/Wicker bed frame using Kraft (or Crumb Cake) cs and the Square Lattice SU Embossing Folder.  This was mounted on Kiwi Kiss cs stamped with the Aida Cloth-retiredSU background stamp and Kiwi Kiss ink.  Next I punched a Label with Whisper White cs and added the word, Friends with Baja Breeze in, threaded some Old Olive Twill ribbon through it and tied a bow.  The butterfly was stamped with Baja Breeze and I water colored in a little Kiwi Kiss ink and added some clear Glitter then mounted it with mounting tape.  Lastly I used the Chain border punch (EK Success) and added the white border at the bottom of the card.

Now you are seriously going to want to visit Elena's Blog to see the card she sent me. It is just AWESOME! I hadn't sent her card before I mailed mine out and was surprised and delighted to see that we had come up with two very different cards but yet side by side they looked fabulous. I took a picture of them together but don't want to spoil the surprise of your seeing her card so hop on over to her blog and leave her some comment lovin. She adds such great details to her cards. I love the sewing, the pearl swirl embellishment, the buttons, the papers...well the whole card is just amazing!!

Once Upon A Monthly Challenge #2

Hello! Wow the "Dog Days" of summer are certainly in full force here in "Wally World" (aka-Walla Walla, WA) with temperatures over 100 yesterday and pretty much in the upper 90's for the rest of the week.  But you didn't come here to hear about the weather - Atleast I hope you didn't.

It's time once again for my friend, Elena (The Redhaired Girl) and I to post our cards for our monthly challenge with each other.  This month Elena chose the theme and it was to create a card that reflected something we enjoy about Summer.  Okay I must admit to being a bit challenge by the theme but I like the card I finally came up with.                We don't do a lot of traveling during the summer and rarely take a vacation and I'm not much for outdoor activities but I do enjoy flower gardening and how pretty all the flower look (until the heat melts them) so that is what I chose as my summer theme.  I used an old retired SU stamp set, (A Year in the Country) which I colored with Prisma Colored pencils.  I mounted this on Green Galored cs then paired it up with some fun designer paper (My Minds Eye)

I also stamped the SU Sanded BG on some Apricot Appeal cs, added 3 Tangerine Tango punched flowers with bright green brad centers. The card base is Real Red.

I added a fun picket fence border with a MS punch on some textured blue cs.  My sentiment if from Hero Arts.

Now be sure to pop on over to Elena's blog as you are going to be blown away with how adorable the card she sent me for this challenge is.  You won't want to miss it.

We had people who also joined our challenge last month so feel free to give this challenge a try and be sure to link back either on my post or on Elena's post so we can check your cards out.

We'll be back again next month with another challenge theme.  Thanks for visiting and for you comments.  They are truly appreciated.

Once Upon A Monthly Challenge...#1

Here are the results from my Blog Milestone contest.  So without further ado here are the results (I apologize for this blurry photo but I couldn't copy the screen very well.)  Commenter #20 is the winner and that person is none other then Allison!!!                                                                          Allison said...

Love this image...I don't think I have seen it before. Super mix of papers to matchey the cupcake!

June 19, 2010   - Congratulations Allison.  Please contact me with the information on which On-Line store you would like your Gift Certificate from and I will get it sent off to you today!  Thanks everyone for helping me celebrate my 500th Post.  Here's to many more!
 
Now on to some FUN and EXCITING stuff...which was suppose to be posted already but Blogger put this in draft instead of publishing it when I had it scheduled. UGH!

Today is a special day.  My friend Elena (The Red haired Girl) and I have started our own monthly challenge.  Today is our first posting of our:  "Once Upon A Monthly Challenge" and I chose the theme:  Funky Patterns to start off with. 

This is the card that I sent to Elena.  You can find the card she sent me posted on  her blog so don't forget to stop by and check it out.  It's absolutely ADORABLE!  I love all the great details Elena adds to her cards.  She is a wonderful seamstress (which I am so NOT) and she does a fantastic job adding stitching to her cards and oh my her coloring is just awesome.

I chose Mint Motif stamps (Very Square and Very Square Sentiments) for Elena's card.  I used very BRIGHT colors as well using the striped pattern from Cosmo Cricket's DeLovely line for my color scheme.

I paired it with Melon Mambo, Bermuda Bay and Green Galore Card Stock.

I stamped the patterns from the Very square stamp set and then punched out circles using circle punches of varying sizes.  The card is based on a sketch from the latest Go to Sketches magazine from Paper Crafts found on Page 112.

Inks used:  Melon Mambo, Summer Sun, Tangerine Tango and Green Galore.

Other items used: Butterfly punch (source unknown), Gems, ZigZag Punch(EK Success), Cuttlebug embossing folder.

We hope you enjoy our challenge to each other and will stop by again next month when we challenge each other again.

Have a great week.