Great Impressions Stamps + Ribbon Carousel Blog Hop

Good morning! Great Impressions and Ribbon Carousel teamed up for a fantastic blog hop that will run from 6am today until Friday at 11:59pm. I hope you enjoy the hop and fantastic cards we have to share today!

I chose the stamp Peace & Joy for my card, pairing it with some gorgeous brown ribbon from The Ribbon Carousel. 

I created the background by cutting 1/4 & 1/2 inch strips of green cardstock, then adhering those strips 1/4 inch apart on my kraft card base. The sentiment is stamped with Papertrey Ink's Pure Poppy and Stampin' Up's Gumball Green.

Up next is Jak Heath! 

So glad you're hopping with us!  Prizes will be selected randomly from comments left on the DT blogs!  The more you comment, the better your chances of winning! Hop will run through Friday, November 30 at 11:59pm EST.  Blog Hop winners announced Saturday!

1.	Angi Crandall	6.	Mary Marsh	11.	Tangii Crain
2.	Els Brige	7.	Peggy Toole	12.	Great Impressions Blog
3.	Erin Taylor	8.	Piali Biswas	13.	Ribbon Carousel Blog
4.	Jak Heath	9.	Shanna Shands
5.	Jenny Stucky	10.	Sue Kment

(Cannot add links: Registration/trial expired)

So Very Thankful

• I am so thankful for the friends Mark and I have made here. We were invited to four Thanksgiving celebrations this year by our wonderful friends (and were able to make it to three of them!). I am so grateful that these wonderful people thought to include us in their celebrations. 
• My wonderful husband, who has taken great care of me the past 5 days while I've battled a nasty cold/flu. My energy level is low and Mark has really stepped up with the kids and the house.
• I am thankful for Evan and Jack, who bring me such joy every single day. They are wild & crazy, loud, messy, active... but also loving, sweet, kind, and generous. They love me, Mark, and each other. I am very blessed to have them in my life. 
• My extended family who called, texted, and e-mailed me on Thanksgiving to wish us a happy holiday, and check to see how I was feeling.
• I am grateful for this wonderful hobby that I love... and the amazing people (and companies) I get to design for.
• I am so happy my parents are making the long trip from Washington State to Florida tonight so we can celebrate Thanksgiving here tomorrow. Evan insisted on having Thanksgiving with Grandma and Grandpa, and I am so happy we have the opportunity this year to include them in our holiday traditions.
• Finally, I am thankful that we are all healthy, happy, and settled together. The past few years have been crazy (new jobs, moving, new schools), but we are together and truly love each other. For that, I am blessed.

Great Impressions Stamps | CAS Poinsettia

Good morning and Happy Thanksgiving Eve! The card I'm sharing today uses this gorgeous poinsettia stamp from Great Impressions Stamps. I colored the image with Copic markers, added some stickles, and that is it! The image is large and detailed, and I wanted it to be the focus of my card, so I limited my embellishments to some beautiful gold sheer ribbon. 

(Supplies - (Stamps) Great Impressions Stamps: Poinsettia and Berries. Cardstock: Papertrey Ink. Other: Sitckles, ribbon, Copic markers.)

Mark and I are blessed this year to spend Thanksgiving with two wonderful sets of people (and an out of town visitor, Dion). We are having a Thanksgiving lunch at a restaurant tomorrow around noon, then walking/running a 5k in the afternoon before having Thanksgiving dinner a little before 6pm. As Florida transplants I am grateful we have made wonderful friends that invite us over for the holidays! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Erin.

Be You | Digital Layout

Good afternoon, friends! Karla Dudley Designs is releasing several new kits, papers, and frame sets later this week and I had a chance to create a layout for her using several new products. I used my favorite Calipso alphabet, new rectangle frames, new bokeh brushes, textured cardstock, and letter-pressed card.

(Supplies (all supplies are Karla Dudley Designs) - Cardstock: Cardstock Essentials. Alphabet: Calipso. "son" card: I Am Letter Pressed card. White tag: Ashbee. Tab: Digi Essentials No. 2. Photo Turn: Ashbee. Brush: Bokeh.Luv Brushes.)

Jack has passed along his cold and I'm not feeling well... gotta love it when the three year old shares!  I am off to take some cold medicine and (hopefully) a nap. Thanks for stopping by!

A Very Merry Snowman

Hello, friends! Back in September I submitted several cards for publication that didn't get picked up, which means I can share them here. The first card I'm going to share uses Papertrey Ink's Shape Up Snowman die and mini stamp set. When this set was first released I completely fell in love with it! The snowman is beyond adorable, and I like the "mix and match" feel of the mini stamp set. 

I stamped the eyes, nose, and mouth onto the snowman, then ran him through my Big Shot using the Peace Be Still impression plate. The polka dot background paper is from Echo Park, which I accented with a small snowflake stamp inked with PTI's Pure Poppy. The "merry" die cut uses another piece of paper from the same Echo Park paper pack. His scarf was created by trimming a piece of PTI felt (it's about 1/4" wide x 6"), then wrapping it around the snowman and adhering in place. I snipped the ends of each side of the scarf to give it a more realistic look.

 (Supplies - Stamps: (PTI) Shape Up Snowman Accessories, Christmas Labels. Ink: (PTI) Pure Poppy, Aqua Mist, True Black. Dies: (PTI) Shape Up Snowman, Double Ended Banners, Wonderful Words: Holiday. Cardstock: (PTI) Pure Poppy, Aqua Mist, White. Twine: (Stampin' Up!) Cherry Cobbler. Gems: Hero Arts. Felt: PTI. Other: thread, buttons, glitter.)

I can't believe Thanksgiving week is here... we have 4 Thanksgiving celebrations planned (two on Thursday, one Saturday, and one Sunday). Luckily I am only responsible for cooking one of them! I am thrilled to spend time with friends and my parents, who arrive on Saturday. It is going to be an amazing week!

10 Minute Craft Dash + Papertrey Ink Make It Monday + Paper Smooches Sparks

I am trying to sneak in a blog post while Evan does homework & Jack does everything in his power to distract Evan from doing his homework... and I have a feeling my plan is going to backfire on me! I have three cards to post today for three different challenges. First up is a card for the 10 minute craft dash sponsored by Avery Elle:

I used Avery Elle's Blossom's and Blooms and To The Point to create my card... in 9 minutes and 42 seconds! I sketched out the design first, which saved me a lot of time. And I use four different flower stamps with four different Fresh Inks, so I didn't have to clean my stamps until I was finished. The card matches the color swatch better in person... this picture makes it look pink, yellow, and green... but it's really more of a coral color.

Next I have a card for this week's Papertrey Ink Make It Monday challenge: faux pockets. I used three Christmas stamp sets, Background Basics: Christmas, Holiday Lights, and Stylish Sentiments: Holidays, plus Faux Ribbon on the bow die cut:  

And finally, a card for this week's Paper Smooches Sparks Designer Drafts challenge: 

I used one of my favorite Paper Smooches stamp sets, Space Cadet, to create a fun outer space themed card. And just like this card, I had to add the little alien to the inside of the space ship. :-)

Chaos is about to erupt in my house, which is a sign I need to wrap this up and tend to my clearly neglected children. Thanks for stopping by!

Retro Sketches | Challenge #37

I hope everyone is having a great week! Evan was home on Monday, and this short week is throwing me off... I am a day behind! Thank goodness for my google calendar or I would be completely lost. :-)

The Retro Sketches challenge this week is a fun one... a very versatile sketch that I used to create a festive (and sparkly) Christmas card.

I pulled out my Studio Calico December Daily kit for the red and text paper, and also the green glitter paper. The stamps are an older Stampin' Up! stamp set that hadn't seen ink until today.

 

The stack of Christmas cards on my desk is getting higher and higher... I should have them all made by December first. Yay! I don't think I've ever been this organized... usually I am making cards on December 23rd so they at least get in the mail by Christmas!

Have a great week!

Great Impresions Stamps | Sparkling Holiday

Good morning! It is release week at Great Impressions Stamps, and I have a beautiful star tree stamp to showcase today. I pulled out my silver embossing powder + some pearls to create an elegant, shimmery Christmas card:

(Supplies - Stamps: (Great Impressions) Star Tree, I Believe. Cardstock: (PTI) Enchanted Evening. Ink: Versamark. Patterned Paper: (PTI) Enchanted Evening Patterns Pack. Other; Ribbon, embossing powder, pearls.)

I stamped the sentiment on the inside of the card: 

And make sure to check out the Great Impressions Stamps Blog for more release week inspiration and to see all the new stamps that are available in the store. Thanks for stopping by!

Erin.

ColourQ | Challenge #162

Happy Monday, friends! Evan was home from school today and we had a delightfully relaxing day. The kids pulled out their latest Kiwi Crate box and we made kaleidoscopes and shadow puppets, then they helped me make pumpkin chocolate chip muffins (yum!). 

I have a card to share for last week's ColourQ challenge (and the deadline is just a few hours from now... yikes!). But I love the colors and wanted to use Stampin' Up's Perfectly Preserved set that has not seen enough love.

(Supplies - Stamps: (Stampin' Up!) Perfectly Preserved, (PTI) Mixed Messages. Ink: (Stampin' Up!) Riding Hood Read, Crumb Cake, Daffodil Delight, Soft Suede. Dies: (PTI) Doily, Tiny Tags. (Stampin' Up!) Perfectly Preserved. Cardstock: (PTI) Kraft, white. (Stampin' Up!) Soft Suede, Daffodil Delight. Embossing Folder: (Stampin' Up!) Square Lattice. Baker's Twine: Stampin' Up!. Other: White thread, buttons.)

I also wanted to mention that I've added three new tabs to the top of my blog (directly under my blog header): Recognition, Publication, and Design Teams. I plan on added an "About Me" and "Contact" tab soon, too. 

Have a wonderful week!

Hello Hybrid

Last week I discovered several folders of photos I had printed earlier this year. Most of the photos are from the first 6 months of 2012: birthdays, Valentine's Day, my parent's visit, Uncle Tom's visit, school parties, everyday photos. About 200 random, but important photos, of our lives. I want to get these photos scrapped in our albums, so I pulled out a few from Uncle Tom's visit in February to work with. I've also been interested in doing more hybrid layouts. I have so many beautiful kits from Karla (and other designers), that it seems natural to combine digital and traditional scrapbooking.

For this layout I used several digital elements from Karla Dudley Designs that I re-sized/edited in CS5, then printed using my Canon color printer. 

Here is a look at the whole spread:

The circles were cut using my Silhouette Cameo. I layered the circles over some digital paper that I printed, then stapled all the layers together. The journaling spot in the lower left corner is a 3x4 journaling card, also from Karla's Damselle collection, that I printed and embellished using traditional supplies. 

A look at the digital patterned paper:

A monogram "j" from Karla's Rusty Alphabet set:

More digital patterned paper (the kraft polka dots):

You can view all of Karla's digital kits and supplies here and her blog here.

Erin.

Cloud9 Blog Hop

Good morning! Welcome to the Cloud9 blog hop! I am thrilled to be this month's guest designer. Our challenge was to create a card based on this inspiration photo:

I was immediately drawn to the crisp white walls and comforter, accented with bright red, blue, green, and yellow. I wanted to achieve the same look on my card so I pulled out Wplus9's Folk Art Flurries and Pretty Patches: Tree:

(Supplies - Stamps: (Wplus9) Folk Art Flurries and Pretty Patches: Tree. Ink: (Stampin' Up!) Midnight Muse, Gumball Green, Summer Starfruit. (PTI) Pure Poppy. (VersaMark). Cardstock: (PTI) Rustic White, Pure Poppy). Other: White embossing powder, red gems.)

I love the results! Wplus9's stamps inked up beautifully with Stampin' Up's new foam ink pads, and the non traditional color combination is very striking in person. I hope my card has inspired you to pull out your stamps this weekend and create a card for the Cloud9 blog hop!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Erin.

Karla Dudley Designs | Damselle

Happy Thursday, Friends! I hope everyone is having a good week. Ours has been a little disjointed... Evan was home sick Monday, fine yesterday, then spiked a fever last night and stayed home again today. I'm not sure what is going on with him! But he seemed fine tonight & doesn't have a fever, so he will probably go to school in the morning. Having him home two days this week has thrown me off... my schedule is all out of sorts! Hopefully the next two days we will be back to normal as we get ready for a party for Mark on Friday, soccer Saturday morning, and Evan's end of the season soccer party Saturday night. 

When Evan was home on Monday I tackled the playroom... cleaning out the toy box, organizing the loose and random cars, trucks, airplanes, balls, Angry Birds, etc. that had piled up over the past 12+ months. Jack was super helpful putting toys away and finding the right bin or box for them, and Evan helped me sort Angry Birds into their proper box (and he claims 5 boxes of Angry Birds is not enough). I took some before, during, and after photos to place in our Project Life album, but Karla e-mailed me her newest kit, Damselle, and I knew these photos are a perfect match to her kit.

(Supplies - "mess" and "clean": Damselle . Staples: Digi Essentials. Stickers: Damselle. Stitching: Digi Essentials. Journaling card: Damselle. Washi tape: Damselle. Label: Edge Labels. Cardstock: Cardstock Essentials No.1. Patterned Paper: Damselle)

Rather than reprinting these photos for my Project Life album, I think I am going to print the layout on photo paper and slip it directly into the corresponding week.

I will be back Friday morning with a fun card for this month's Cloud9 blog hop. I am the guest designer over there this month! You can check out this month's inspiration picture here, and the hop officially starts Friday.

Thanks for stopping by!

Erin.

Great Impressions Stamps | Christmas Carol Card

Hello! Great Impressions Stamps is having a fun contest on their blog this week, and I am participating! I am going to post my card here and on the Great Impressions Stamps Blog. Hop on over to the Great Impressions Blog and leave a comment guessing which Christmas Carol my card was inspired by and you can win some fun prizes! 

 (Supplies - Stamps: (Great Impressions) Wintery Snowman and Merry Christmas. Ink: (Memento) Tuxedo Black. Cardstock: (PTI) Scarlet Jewel, Kraft, White. (Bazzill) Green. Dies: (PTI) Limitless Layers 2.5" Circles, Double Ended Banner, Mega Mat Stack #4. Other: Gems, stickles, Copic Markers.)

And I want to give a huge HAPPY BIRTHDAY shout out to my wonderful husband, who is celebrating his 30th birthday today. I love you, babe!

Have a wonderful week and thanks for stopping by! 

Erin.

CAS-ual Fridays | Challenge #77

Hey guys! I am playing along with CAS-ual Fridays challenge this week to make a masculine card. 

I can always use birthday cards for my sons' friends, so I pulled out Papertrey Ink's Truckin' It mini stamp set for a fast (and cute!) birthday card. 

(Supplies - Stamps: (PTI) Truckin' It, Banner Builder. Ink: (Memento) Black, (Stampin' Up!) Midnight Muse. Dies: (PTI) Truckin' It, Banner Builder, Double Ended Banner, Fabulous Frames. Cardstock: (PTI) Blueberry Sky, Lemon Tart, Pure Poppy. (Stampin' Up!) Basic Gray. Impression plate: (PTI) Linen and Canvas. Other: Gems, buttons, Copic markers.)

I just can't get enough of these cute little trucks... aren't they adorable?!? 

Have a great week! 

Erin.

Great Impressions Stamps | November Challenge

Good morning!

I have an CAS Christmas card to share for Great Impressions Stamps November challenge. The "Merry Christmas" image is very elegant and I wanted to try it with a few different embossing powders to see how legible the font is.... and I think it turned out beautifully with the gold powder.

(Supplies - Stamps: Simple Elegance & Elegant Merry Christmas. Cardstock: (PTI) Scarlet Jewel, Vintage Cream; Bazzill. Patterned Paper: PTI. Ink: (PTI) Scarlet Jewel, VersaMark. Die: PTI. Other: Embossing powder, white string, gems, buttons.)

Make sure you check out the Great Impressions Stamps blog for more holiday inspiration. The girls have really outdone themselves this month!

Thanks for stopping by!

Make It Monday | Challenge #89

Happy Friday! I have a fun card to share for Papertrey Ink's Make It Monday challenge: creating windows for floating images. 

I used Papertrey Ink's Super Stars and Hello Sunshine to create a fun card for one of my little super stars.

 (Supplies - Stamps: (PTI) Hello Sunshine and Super Stars. Ink: (PTI) New Leaf, Blueberry Sky, Enchanted Evening, Limeade Ice, Lemon Tart. Dies: (PTI) Seeing Stars, Modern Alphabet Die, Limitless Layers 2.5" Circle Dies. Impression Plate: (PTI) Linen and Canvas)

I need to run and get Jack from pre-school (it's his favorite day of the week... Pizza Friday!), but I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Erin.

{love you} | Digital Layout

Hi there! I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween. The kids finally fell asleep at 9:45pm after eating their weight in candy, cookies, cupcakes, pizza, and more candy. Evan picked out his Mario costume months ago and he couldn't wait to to wear it. Jack was undecided until almost 5:00pm and  finally decided on Iron Man (minus the mask) right before we left for Publix. I have a ton a photos to process and I'll post them here soon.

I am super excited to share a layout I made using Karla's new kits: Give Thanks. They will be available tomorrow on the Design House Digital website! She has four kits: papers, flair badges, word stickers, and word brushes. I used a little from each kit on my layout:

REMOVED FOR PUBLICATION

(Supplies - Staples: Digi Essentials. Stitches: Digi Essentials. Tan and white edge label: Edge Labels. Alpha brush: Stamp Alpha. "family" brush: Give Thanks. Leaf button: Give Thanks. Home & family sticker: Give Thanks. Green cardstock: Give Thanks)

I just adore this photo of Mark and the boys. I took it almost a year ago, but it's still one of my favorites. 

Have a great week and thanks for stopping by!

Erin.