{ color chef challenge #56 winner }

Check out the beauty of a card that Joan made for the Color Chef Challenge #56- thanks to everybody who played along! Go check out Joan's blog- she makes some great cards!


Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Here's to a quick week before the holiday weekend. Can you believe it's nearly the 4th of July already??

{ color chef challenge #57 }

Color Chef Challenge #57....I'm posting a little early so I could link to Taylor's. (Feel free to use her sketch if it helps you but you aren't obligated to use the sketch, just the colors.

Brown Green White
For my card, I pulled out a little set of $1 stamps that I just had to have but haven't found the opportunity to use. I used a circle punch for the sentiment layer and I like how it gives the illusion of it being a carving on a tree stump. The ribbon was a blog prize some weeks ago and it practically matched the green cardstock.

Oh, and I repeated the layer of chocolate and white cardstock on the inside of the card as well.

Card Recipe:
stamps- Series 32- Studio G, woodgrain- PTI
ink- chocolate, garden green- CTMH
paper- garden green, white daisy, chocolate- CTMH
other- apron lace punch- EK Success, 1" circle punch- EK Success, ribbon- Kaleidoscope

Can't wait to see what you create!

{ storm damage }

Well, this is not how I like to start the weekend. We had terrible storms roll through and we lost a beautiful Russian Olive Tree. It's now laying on our fence and is in/on our truck in the driveway. These pictures are far from good quality, but I took them in the aftermath of last nights storm.

** Interestingly enough, Russian Olives are supposed to take wind well.

Obviously the truck can be fixed but I'm so sad about that tree being down. I went outside again this morning to survey the damage and all I can hear are chainsaws running throughout the neighborhood so I know others had damage as well.
Our vegetable gardens got smoked too but I think those are salvagable. A bunch of stems were snapped off but I think we'll still have a nice harvest.

The silver lining in this is I got my stamp room cleaned out last night while waiting for the storm to pass, so I'll be ready to get to a scrapbook I'm working on from my trip to San Francisco last summer. WHY oh WHY am I not one of these people who comes home from a trip and scraps it right away?

{ color chef challenge #56 }

Hi again, peeps!
For the Color Chef Challenge #56, we're going to do something a little different:

Tone on Tone: your choice of color.

I got the idea after creating this Father's Day Card for my dad. I wanted to use a flower stamp but hope that I made it look a little masculine in the way I used it:

For my card, I stamped grey ink on grey stock. The flowers were stamped on the same paper as the card base and the edges were inked as well to make them pop a bit. Then I added a couple of lines along the top and left side of the card using my MS score pad.

So, go ahead and use any color that you wish, but do a tone on tone (different shades & tones of the same color). Can't wait to see your cards!

{ color chef challenge #55 winner }

Happy Monday! I'm a little late with drawing for the winner of the Color Chef Challenge #55....The weather turned out beautiful yesterday which meant we got to go to the Summer Solstice Music Festival, which meant I wasn't on the computer yesterday, and MAN does that ever feel good!


Anyhow, check out Denise's really pretty card below- great idea for the masculine card. I always struggle with those!
Denise- here is the code for your Color Chef Challenge winner badge if you'd like to display on your blog!

{ OLW: flourishes }

I played along with Susan's One Layer Wednesday Challenge. It's so fun to make a simple card yet one that still has impact.

Not to much to tell with this card. Couple of stamps in each corner and a sentiment. BAM you have yourself a one layered card.

We have some fun Father's Day Cards today that include late lunch at our house with some "Juicy Lucy" burgers on the grill served with an Orzo pasta with roasted vegetables and baked beans. Recipe Girl did a fantastic post about this recipe that made my mouth water and then run immediately to the store to pick up the few ingredients that I didn't have on hand. Trust me. You WANT to try this recipe. It's definitely going into the 'favorite recipes'. I had all I could do to not eat the entire bowl of it yesterday when I prepared the salad. And I can't wait to top it off with my mini basil leaves that are finally taking off outside in the garden.

And if it quits raining, we'll be just down the street from my house listening to bands all afternoon at a fun event called Mankato Solstice.

Have a very Happy Father's Day, especially my dad!!!

{ off the wall craftiness challenge =28 pop dots}

I knew for certain that I'd be playing along with the OTWC challenge this week: white, turquoise and brown= YUM O!!!
Well, I got a little crazy with my card because I mounted each and every cupcake- that's 28 foam mounting squares!!!!.

This card was time consuming, but oh so fun- I'm talking 1.5 hours to get it "just right" but alas, here it is!

I added the apron lace punch to the bottom border of the card and then I wrapped a ribbon around the top, attached it under the mounted cupcake sentiment.

Wow- I'm exhausted and going to bed. Have a good one!

Card Recipe:
stamps- Hey there Cupcake- CTMH
ink- chocolate- CTMH
paper- chocolate- CTMH, textured breeze- Hobby Lobby
other- apron lace punch- EK Success, cupcake punch- Martha Stewart, ribbon from my stash, foam dots- Hobby Lobby

{ color chef challenge #55 }

Happy Monday and welcome to Color Chef Challenge #55

Cream, muted green, soft blue

For my card, I trimmed a piece of cardstock that is the same as the base and trimmed it to 4 x 5 1/4. I inked the edges with a sponge tool with a handle then created a background by repeatedly stamping the image along the bottom 1/3 of the card. I decided to stop where I did and use my new Martha Stewart Score Board. I created a border slightly wider than the sentiment that I also repeatedly stamped across the card.

Then, I took a piece of scratch paper, using the top border above the happy birthday as my starting point, and randomly stamped the flower image across the top 1/3 of the paper.

Really, this card is pretty simple but at the same time there is a lot going on.

Card Recipe:
stamps- Say It In Style- CTMH
ink- garden green, juniper- CTMH
other- score board- Martha Stewart

I hope you'll play along with the color chef challenge!

{ color chef challenge # 54 winner }

I laughed when I saw that Billie's card won the Color Chef Challenge, you see she was also drawn to win the set of stamps last week and not only did she use the stamps that I sent her but she also used the score board as well (which I asked you readers for advise on this last week as well).



I say it every week, but you guys sure make some awesome cards for these challenges! Thanks to all who play along!

{ clean and simple 94 }

I had a stamp set in mind when I saw this sketch! I love creating my own backgrounds as I did on this card. This set has coordinating stamps so I chose a big stamp and a small stamp that had the same design. With the small image, I created rows of color. Then the big image was stamped on scrap paper, trimmed and mounted onto the card front. I cut a circle using my whale punch and used that for the sentiment layer.


Card Recipe:
stamps- majestic- American Crafts, For Every Occasion- CTMH
ink- buttercup and breeze- CTMH
paper- grey woll, white daisy and buttercup- CTMH
other- EK Success 1" circle punch, foam tape- Hobby Lobby

{ thanks for everything }

Happy Saturday! It's cool and rainy here in Saturday and a perfect day to have this in the crockpot: Refried beans without the Refry. I made mine with black beans because that is what I had in the cupboard and I omitted the jalepeno because they are not ready yet (via my garden)

I plan to make a taco dip tonight for dinner using the refried beans as the base. I think I will require a light dinner this evening because I plan on eating popcorn and having a big fat diet coke this afternoon when a friend and i go see this movie!! By some miracle I have not heard any spoilers so I don't know what really happens in the movie but I'll tell you one thing, if Aiden and Carrie have more than conversation in this movie, I'm gonna be ticked off.

I got a little crafty this morning. The thanks for everything card goes out to all of you ladies who took the time to weigh in on a question I had regarding the Scor-Pal vs. Martha Stewart version.

I went for the MS version and for a mere $12 I am one happy camper! Notice the nice crisp fold on my card below :)

I used a favorite color combo and didn't really have a plan when I set out to make this but here is what I ended up with:

I dug out some paper flowers that I had to have from a Making Memories kit a few years ago. I popped those and used adhesie rhinestones in the centers. Then I layered up a nestabilities tag with a scallop square punch.

Lots of texture and layers here.


Have a great weekend! I'll be back later today because I have a few other cards up my sleeve thanks to a couple of great card challenges that I played along with.

{ color chef challenge #53 winner }

Whoa ladies!!! There were some AWESOME cards last week. Totally enjoyed your entries and am so glad you played last week!

This festive graduation card was drawn to win Color Chef Challenge #53

Thanks for playing along Nance!


Here is the code for your blog, Nance!

{ color chef challenge #54 }

Color Chef Challenge #54

cream turquoise dark brown kraft paper

I am incorporating the CPS sketch into my card this week.

I rotated the sketch and came up with this card:

I used the scrolly image from Fancy Pants- I stamped that on kraft paper in chocolate ink. Then I layered that on chocolate paper and then again over the textured paper that I used the apron lace Fiskars punch on (my fave punch).

The bird is stamped and trimmed then attached onto the textured stock and layered over kraft and chocolate paper.

Isn't that saying neat? A bird doesn't sing becasue it has an answer, it signs because it has a song - Maya Angelo.

I hope you'll have time to play along with the color chef challenge this week!

Card Recipe:
Stamps- for the birds- Fiskars, Fancy Pants 10x10 stamps
ink- chocolate- CTMH
paper- breeze texture and kraft - Hobby Lobby, chocolate and cream- CTMH
other- apron lace fiskars border punch

{ clean & simple and a question }

Super fun sketch going on this week over at CAS!
I played with a soothing color combo- grey, aqua, yellow and cream.

My question to you is that I am considering either a scor-pal or martha stewarts version, the score board. I'm really tired of the messy fold, especially when I do a top fold (you can maybe see what I mean at the top of my card). Have you used either of these? I'd love to hear your thoughts on if you think it's a good investment.

Card Recipe:
stamps- Poppy Backround- Hero Arts, Happy Birthday- CTMH
ink- breeze- CTMH
paper- grey wool and cream- CTMH,
other- CTMH button, glue dot, Waxy Flax- CTMH