My favorite Sketch Design

This is one of my favorite sketches for my cards. SparkleGirl (aka Silke) has a chance for someone to win BLOG CANDY so check it out here. She wants to see your favorite sketch and this is one of my favorites - I go back to this one whenever I need to make a quick card for someone. I hope you like it and get a chance to use it. 

 

I would love to see what you would do with it.  Leave me a comment with your link if you do or if you post to SplitCoastStampers use keyword: SD1M625.

Thanks and I can't wait to see what you do.

SC178 and two cuties!

I needed to make a Thank You note to send a special friend and I was all out of ideas until I checked this Sketch Challenge on SplitCoastStampers. It was all I needed to get in gear and make a card. I wanted to use the flower from the Doodle This set that I used last week, I just didn't know how without making the same card.  This is how it turned out and I am sure my friend will love it too!

Enjoy!

Stamps:  Doodle This and Short & Sweet

Inks:  Black StazOn, Basic Black and Almost Amethyst

Paper:  Almost Amethyst, Certainly Celery, Basic Gray and Whisper White

Accessories:  Rhinestone Brad, Dimensionals, Paper Piercer and adhesive 

Now on to the two cuties!  These were my helpers today. Alexa was making me jewelry, which I will try to post a picture of when it dries, and Ben, well, was just being Ben! I love them both so much!

Julie's Color Concoction #14

We had a great Memorial Day Weekend!  I hope you all did too.  My dad visited on Friday into Saturday and Brad's parents came in on Saturday night and into Sunday.  We were quite busy, but enjoyed all the company. On Monday we went out and got some plants for our front flower bed.  I thought I would get a chance to plant today, but the weather has decided not to cooperate.  It is FREEZING out there!

I did get a few minutes yesterday to make a quick card for Julie's Color Concoction #14.  There were only two colors for this challenge: Always Artichoke and Perfect Plum.  I added the Sahara Sand band across the front for contrast and the skunk is on watercolor paper.  I really only had about 15 minutes to make something and I thought that it all come together perfectly. 

Enjoy!

Stamps:  Pun Fun, Cool Jumbo Wheel and Lots of Thoughts

Inks: Black StazOn, Basic Black, Always Artichoke and Perfect Plum

Paper: Always Artichoke, Perfect Plum, Sahara Sand and Watercolor Paper

Accessories: Whisper White Grosgrain Ribbon colored with Perfect Plum Marker, Brads, Dimensionals and adhesive

Alexa's Last Day of School

Today was Alexa's last day of school.  She was sad - but I told her that she would get to go to the park to play with all her classmates one last time and she perked right up.  She is going to miss going to school - that's for sure.  Here is a picture of her playing with her friend Mallory.

Another fun challenge

Here is a cards I made for one of our Dad's for Father's Day - so do not show them if you are reading this and they are in the room.  Now we just have to decide which one gets it - that is going to be a tough one!

This challenge is once again from SplitCoastStampers.com. It was the Wednesday Challenge - Way to use it (WT167) and you were to create a masculine card.  My masculine stamp collection is not very plentiful, but I did get this cute set - Jack HandyMan - a few months ago.  The challenge gave me a reason to take it out of the box.  So, here's what I came up with.  Enjoy!

Stamps: Jack HandyMan

Cardstock: Brilliant Blue, Real Red, Soft Sky, Very Vanilla and Watercolor Paper

Inks: Brilliant Blue, Real Red, Chocolate Chip, Basic Black and Black StazOn

Gina K Sketch Challenge #1

I really like the ideas of these challenges.  It really gets me excited and I can hardly wait to run to my craft room to make something wonderful. Well, while visiting my daily dose of  blogs I came across this challenge by Gina K.  So, off to work I went.

I still had all the cardstock on my table from the color challenge - so instead of putting it away and starting fresh - I decided just to use it.  Pure LAZINESS on my part, but the results came out great!

I used the little hippo from the "Pun Fun" set from Stampin' Up! and the colors: Blue Bayou, Soft Sky and Certainly Celery.   I hope you enjoy it and if you get a chance leave me a comment!

CC167 Entry

I decided to try another color challenge today.  This time the one at SplitCoastStampers.com sparked my interest.  I thought that the colors that were chosen (Blue Bayou, Soft Sky and Certainly Celery) were easy to use, which is surprising to me since I really don't like blues.  I can't take the credit for the design, as I saw this card of Karen's and it inspired me to take out my Doodle This set and give it a try.  

Let me know what you think. Enjoy!

Anna-Marie's Challenge

Anna-Marie challenged us to create a card or scrapbook layout using a book as inspiration.  I choose the book "Silly Sally" because my daughter loves this book and I wanted to make her a card she would love just as much.  The little girl on the card spins - just as I imagine Sally is doing on the cover of the book.  I hope I made the deadline and thanks for the challenge! It gave me an excuse to do something crafty this weekend.  Enjoy!

One of the chosen few . . .

My card my selected as one of the ten randomly selected for Kristina Werner's Color Inspiration #9!  YEAH - I would of loved to be in the top ten, but this is just as great! Click on the link to check it out. Mine is in the second row of the ten randomly selected, third one in and, of course, check out all the others too.

http://kwernerdesign.com/blog/2008/05/color-inspiration-9-roundup.html

Kristina Werner's Color Inspiration #9

Here is my submission to Kristina Werner's Color Inspiration #9 - Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, So Saffron, Old Olive and Tempting Turquoise. I absolutely love the colors this time and had so much fun using them.

I made a 4 x 4 card with the Old Olive cardstock and used crumpled tissue paper on my Old Olive stamp pad to give it a "textured" look. I thought it added a little something extra to the card. Then I just layered on the So Saffron strip and Real Red ribbon. Next I stamped this cute little bird from the Pun Fun set on watercolor paper and went to town coloring it. I layered it on the Tempting Turquoise and then used dimensionals between each layer, to give it some depth. Finally, I couldn't resist adding the sign "Happy Bird-day".

Enjoy & let me know what you think.

My First Post

I have decided to take the plunge and start my own blog.  I am calling this blog "Messages from Mandy" in the hopes that I will post many things that occur with me, my family and all the projects that I create.  So, bear with me as I learn how this works.