Kissing - it's not just for . . .

I will let you finish that sentence! :) However, if you want to know WHAT in the world I am talking about, you will have to hop on over to Top Tip Tuesday for this weeks tutorial from my teammate Maggie. The challenge is to use two different stamps on your project. For my sample, I actually used three different stamps. I stamped a two-step rose under the flower spray - you can barely see it peeking out of the top and bottom of the spray. Then I used the sentiment stamp. I took my colors from a Stamping 411 color inspiration from a few weeks ago. I haven't used these flowers from Wild Orchid Craft in quite a while and it was fun to use them again. I may have to look into placing an order with them soon as there are some of the flowers I have used in the past that I have run out of and it always seems that I don't quite have the colors I want. The inspiration colors are Crumb Cake, Pacific Point, Tangerine Tango and Riding Hood Red. I tried to use flowers that came close to this color selection as well and think they came out nice. I used crumb cake seam binding ribbon, but am not as crazy about the bow. I used a sketch challenge from another blog - but I cannot remember now where it was from. It is always easier for me to find a sketch to follow - it cuts down on the time it takes for me to grab my creativity and run with it.
Anyway, I just wanted to give you a glimpse into what I have done over the last couple of days and to encourage you to join our challenge this week at Top Tip Tuesday. We have some awesome sponsors.
~Paula~

I LOVE Flowers

Each season of the year has it's beauty and Spring is probably one of my favorites because of all the beautiful colors. I LOVE flowers - every shade and color - some more than others! I like small flowers and big flowers. My flower garden is one in the making, and so far I have roses, pansies, marigolds and yesterday I bought Snapdragons - we call them Talking Flowers at our house! So, with all this talk about flowers, I made several cards using flowers. With this first one, I used a color combination from Stamping 411 Rose Red, River Rock and Always Artichoke. River Rock tends to take on the hue of the colors around it. I started with my Artichoke base and added an embossed rose red panel. I then cut another piece of Artichoke with my Nestibilities scallop square die. Now my sketch is from Stamping 411 also - using sketch challenge #203. I don't have the Stampin' Up! Square scallop die, so I had to improvise with my scallop square. (Stamping 411 has gone to an all Stampin' Up! only products challenges) So, I then took my river rock and stamped the flowers from the Vintage Vogue (117690/118598) set. This set has been a very versatile set and one I have used often. I used the rose red to stamp the images and then I stamped the flowers again on whisper white cardstock and fussy cut them out. I crumpled them up to give them a 'weathered' kind of look. I was going to leave them as is but they just didn't look finished. So, I stamped the smaller flower in Artichoke and fussy cut them and then crumpled them up. I attached them to the larger flower and then added a rhinestone to finish them off. I attached my very vanilla seam binding ribbon and added the rhinestones to finish off the entire card. I like these colors together and like the finished look of the card/sketch.
I am putting this card into several challenges.
Stamping 411 Color Inspiration #157
SU Only Challenge #19 - flowers
I am sure if I look around blogland, I will find a few other challenges that this one will fit into, however, I will have to find some time to do that, and I don't have that time right now.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. I do have a few more cards that I did and will post, but will have to wait until tomorrow afternoon to do that.
Have a wonderful rest of your day - and remember to relax and smell the flowers.
~Paula~

Top Tip Tuesday Design Team Call

Have you aspired to be part of a design team? Well, here is your opportunity to apply to a fun and creative team. There are FOUR spots available on the team and we would love to see your crafty creations. So hop on over to the Top Tip Tuesday blog to get all the details. Hurry though as this call is only open until 6pm GMT on May 31st.

Relaxing and crafting go together

Especially when I can sit at my computer and pull out my digital elements in My Digital Studio and just place them on a background - simple, and no mess to clean up when I have to leave for work - which is soon. So, let me show you what I have been creating over the last couple of days. Yesterday, I created this card based on a sketch that I saw - not sure where now. It fits the theme this week for The Top Tip Tuesday Blog challenge.
My teammate Samantha has a fabulous tutorial on creating candy flowers and you really must check it out. then go and make a card using florals of some sort. there are some fabulous prizes as always. My card is a digital card - using elements from My Digital Studio from Stampin' Up! I don't have a dedicated crafting space just yet - though that is about to change shortly. So, I have to drag everything out when I want to craft and then put it all away so that others in the family don't get frustrated by my mess. Of course, I am always cleaning up other's messes - so why can't I leave one of my own? Hmmm, guess it doesn't quite work that way. Anyway, with digital, there is no mess left behind and wonderful creations in the making. I can even save my work and come back to it later.

So, today I just wasn't up to dragging a bunch of stuff out to craft with, but still wanted to do some crafting, so I decided to sit in my comfy chair (well, I am not sure how comfortable it is) and just play with digital. I have a very buy month - with birthday's, graduations, and such, I needed a few cards - some of which I needed to send right away in order for the recipient to get it on time, so I created this simple birthday card for my son who is away at college. This is the front of the card and then, I added a couple more 'pages' and added a message to him on the inside. I used the extreme elements and changed the color and added a border on the bottom. I tried to make the border just on the white part, but it was a long process to change it, so I decided to leave it as it is. It is a simple and QUICK card for a young man away at college and I am sure that he will appreciate it. I will send this to him - with the other 'pages' by email (and hope he opens it) so that he gets it by Friday - which is his birthday. Now, if only I could send virtual money to him! lol

My oldest daughter graduates from high school in a couple of weeks, so I needed a card to give to her. This one I will probably get printed so that I can hand it to her. I got the idea for the card from Andrea Walford site. This particular idea was to help use up bits and pieces of scrap designer paper that we all have laying around - however, I didn't have any scrap digital DSP lying around, so I just 'cut' into some new. The nice thing about digital is that I DON'T have pieces laying around that I wonder what I am going to do with!! I didn't have any digital stamps in my selection for the text, so I created my own using the text feature. This way I could also make the words as big as I wanted. This was a fun one to do, but now looking at the card, I might just have to switch the pieces around a little to give it more dimension - but that will be for another day - and perhaps even another grad - my eighth grader is also graduating this year. She is my youngest - and I am beginning to feel really old as my kids begin to graduate and move on in their lives. This last card I made for another one of my kids who lives a long ways away. I like to send cards and greetings to my kids and friends, so had fun just making another 'manly' sort of card to let him know I am thinking about him. I also added a 'page' and wrote a greeting to him.

All of these cards were created as stated above using My Digital Studio from Stampin' Up! I don't have a color printer, so am unable to print these off on my own - at least at the moment. However, I can submit these through Stampin' Up and can have them print them and sent to me so that I can send them out to my kids.

I hope you have enjoyed taking a peek at my creations for the the last two days. I look forward to sharing more with you in the days ahead.

~Paula~

A little late - but here's the scoop. . .

This week over at Top Tip Tuesday there is an open challenge. You know what that means? It means you can create ANYTHING you want and enter it for a chance at some fabulous prizes from our sponsors.
I also want to let you all know that according to the May 2011 Wiki0 rankings - Top Tip Tuesday has now made it into the top 20 blogs in the UK and Irish blogospheres. You can find the listing here . I am so thrilled to be a part of this fantastic DT - if you take time to look through the list of blogs - you will see we are ahead of such 'famous' blogs as 'The Sugar Bowl' and 'Sir Stamp Alot Challenge'. There are a few other ones that we are ahead of, so you just have to go have a look. We have jumped up in the ratings quite a bit over the last couple of months and I want to thank those of you that support our blog with your entries into our weekly challenges.
My schedule at work continues to be crazy - working days this week, and nights next week. I am not sure when it will end!! It seems I only have time to throw together a digital creation about once a week - but I am so happy I have the My Digital Studio from Stampin' Up! - as it sure makes it easy (and not to mention FUN) to create using my favorite images and papers.
Stop by soon to see what I am able to create - whether digital or real hands on paper - my friend Gloria thinks that I have gone over to the 'dark side' in playing with digital - she is probably right - but I must say that playing with digital is SO portable!! Like this weekend - when I am away from home - but not away from my computer - so guess what? I can STILL create with Stampin' Up! My digital traveling craft room!! :)

Have a great rest of your day wherever you are in the world.
~Paula~

A Quick Play and Now off to work

I had chores to do this morning - and part of those chores was clearing off my table of my stamping stuff since I am not sure when I will get time to play with real paper again. Just before leaving for work, I decided to take a little time for me - and play with some more of MDS. I just 'threw' some elements together along with some 'papers' to come up with this design to submit for the Stamping 411 Saturday Sketch Challenge #200. I stacked a couple 5 petal flower punches on top of each other, colored them with paper and added the Hodgepodge Brad. It is a simple design. I just love using the sketches from many different blogs - it helps SO much when the mojo (and time) are low. I hope you have enjoyed taking a peek at another of my digital creations. I noticed I have to do a bit of tweeking on the sides, but it is time to run off to work - a 9 hour shift today.
~Paula~

More Digital

Last night I printed out the catalog pages for my MDS - but only the ones that were text since I didn't want to print 97 pages of B&W images - what good does that do? Anyway, as I was going through all the stuff that I got when I purchased my MDS, I decided I would play with some of it. I first had to reload the elements from the Sale-a-Bration CD that I bought that had several kits and stamps on it so that I could use it with the MDS program rather than my Photoshop CS4. I chose a printed Marina Mist for my background paper and then added Perfect Plum grosgrain ribbon. I used the brads from the Vanilla hodgepodge hardware set and used just the word Bliss from the set. I modified the oval punch and matted it with Marina Mist - added shadows and the card is complete. I have this actual stamp set as well, so I could easily recreate this card - perhaps change the ribbon up a bit since I don't have this color ribbon in my stash. Now I just need to make something astonishing - and what better day to do it than today. It is cloudy and there is threat of thunderstorms and rain again today. I don't have to work, but I do have Civil Air Patrol tonight. I have been working on stuff for that, and have a bit more to do - but I just want to relax. I am reading the latest Fern Michael's Sisterhood book - and it is so good I just can't put it down - so I will probably read until the book is done - by then I will be sleepy and want to take a nap - so I just might.
I hope your day is going well - thanks for stopping by the spa today.
~Paula~

Are you Square?

Or, maybe the question should be do you like making square projects? Like boxes or cards, or ??? Well, today at Top Tip Tuesday my teammate, Leanne has a fabulous tutorial on making a box envelope of any size. We also have some wonderful sponsors for the week. I have chosen to make a Mother's Day card - to enter into the Elizabeth Bell Challenge Blog's April project. This Challenge blog started back in the Fall of last year and I have not missed one of the challenges yet - until last month!! I just did NOT get around to making a centerpiece for Easter even though I bought some items to assist in the project - work just took over and I never got the time to do anything. I was going to try and do something really quick in the 11th hour, which was Friday night - however, I went out with a friend and we did our own form of art at a local art gallery. Those of you that live in the South Eastern United States may be familiar with Sips and Strokes. It is similar to those pottery places where you go in and select a piece of pottery to paint, then leave it for a week for them to fire for you, EXCEPT this is a PAINTING place. You pay a small fee, you get a canvas and an instructor walks the class through the painting and at the end of the night you have a beautiful painting that you created. It is interesting to see the variations of the different class members and the end result. My friend and I have done this one other time and I think this time I like my painting much better. It is a fun girls night out for a minimal fee. So, you can now understand why I wasn't able to do my Elizabeth Bell project at the last minute - which I seem to have done for the last several months - so THIS time, I decided I would get a jump on this project RIGHT away. Besides, Mother's Day is long before the due date of the 22nd, so I HAD to get this done. So, I used this sweet little girl on my card. I colored her with my prisma color pencils - which I haven't used in quite some time. I then cut this image apart and layered it giving a 3D affect. I have set her on this beautiful Designer Paper from Stampin' Up! This paper is a sneek peek from the new Catalog that will be out later this summer, however, until the end of this week, with a qualifying order, you can order this paper as well as a stamp set - you can click on my Stampin' Up! link to get all the information. I think the way I have placed this little cutie makes her look like a fairy amongst the flowers. I added pearls to the flower in the top right to give some dimension. I then added some Marina Mist satin ribbon - using the ruching method. I had started to add the sentiment to the front of the card, but my sweet husband said that he thought it looked better without the sentiment on the front and that perhaps it would look better inside. So, I added another portion of this beautiful DSP to the inside of the card and then added my sentiment. The inside is quite simple but I didn't w


ant to take away from the front of the card. I got my sweet image called Kneeling Willow from Simon Says Stamps. They are Whiff of Joy stamps and I was gifted a $20 voucher to spend at Simon Says Stamps - so it was wonderful to get actual Elizabeth Bell stamps to use on this project. If you have made it this far on my post - thank you! I have gone on about my art and I appreciate you sticking with me this far.
I am happy to say that my schedule at work has changed in such a way that I can do more crafting now. I am not thrilled about working the closing shift, however, it is almost the best of all worlds. I can craft during the day before I go to work, I can have lunch with my sweetie - breakfast out on the weekends and spend the whole day doing gardening or other things and then go to work in the evening. I do miss dinner with the family, but they understand that the reason I am working is for a good thing. Teens are expensive!! And I have WAY to many craft things I want to get!! :)
I am also entering this card in the Hand Stamped Sentiments Challenge this week, which is making something for Mother's Day as well.
Stop by later - I might just have some more crafting to show you - who knows, it might be digital or it might be playing with paper!!
Thanks for visiting the spa today.
~Paula~

Another Digital Play

I am loving using the sets in the My Digital Studio from Stampin' Up! This is another digital card made using one of the sets that will be available starting May 1. This set is called Fabulous Florets and it is amazingly versatile. I think there is even a coordinating paper that comes in the mini catalog if you order the set, but since I was being lazy and didn't want to get up to go find it, I just chose to use my own selection of colors. I started with a background of Pacific Point and then matted whisper white on top and then added my images using old olive, Tangerine Tango, Melon Mambo, Baja Breeze and a color that is close to Daffodil Delight. I faded the opacity on the two large flowers in the background to give them a softer look. I grabbed some grosgrain ribbon and a couple buttons and added those and then created the scallop oval matting and picked out a font for my type and typed the sentiment. I added another texture stamp and tried to make it Baja Breeze, but it still looks black to me - but I still like the finished affect.
The challenge on the SU Only challenge blog this week is to make Mother's Day cards - so this one fits the challenge perfectly. Now I simply have to take this image to the printers (I don't have a color printer at home) and print it out on cardstock and then add my own personal sentiments to the inside and send it off to my mom. Of course, I COULD order the stamp set too and then I can just stamp it out, using this design as my sample card. I am REALLY enjoying the few projects I have had time to make using My Digital Studio and the cost is SO enticing. You might want to just check it out for yourself. The program is easy to use and comes with many different items to start with. The downloads are within any stampers budget too and the quality is the same that you get with any of Stampin' Up's products.
Anyway - I have to work tonight - so this is all I get to do in the way of being creative. I hope you have enjoyed visiting the spa today and seeing the digital work that I have done. Do come back soon for more creative inspiration.
~Paula~

Blog Candy

Yes, my teammate (Leanne) over at Top Tip Tuesday is offering some yummy blog candy on her blog. If you like Magnolia stamps - then you must check this out. Go to Leanne's blog to find out the details.

~Paula~