Color Throwdown #177/ Always Elegant Valentine

It's time to bring a little love to this Super Bowl Sunday. Here's my try at this week's color scheme from the folks over at The Color Throwdown. Our very Valentine choices were Basic Black, Melon Mambo, and Whisper White. I'm a huge fan of all that co-ordinates in the stamping world (guess that's why I'm a Stampin' Up demo, huh?) and so I love how the lines from the Always Elegant stamp set go so well with those created by the Elegant Lines embossing folder. It causes an over all effect that just flows together. I feel like my card has its fancy pants on... perhaps a tuxedo? The organza ribbon along with the pearls add that dressed up feel as does the slight shine from embossing my black stamped images. Some times it doesn't take much to dress things up just a tad. It also goes to show that you don't need a whole bunch of stamps to make a really great card. Since all the stamps in a Stampin' Up set are designed to work together, you often just need one set to make a full project. It's just another way that co-ordinating products make my life easier. Now, if only the same applied to my closet... then my mornings would be easier too!

Doily Valentine Easel

I'm ever so excited about our Valentine Theme class this weekend. I think I'll even sneak in a couple of the cards to Thursday's class in Lakewood. I would hate for folks to miss out on these beauties! Today's example would do quite nicely as an anniversary card as well as a Valentine. The "white on white" embossing of the card front adds just the right amount of texture to complement the doily pattern from the Flirtatious Designer Series Paper. I love how the Wisteria Wonder cardstock makes the Pretty in Pink from the designer paper just pop! Easel cards are such fun because they're really made to display. That way you can show off the beautiful card while your personal inscription remains hidden. The best part is, now folks can score their own bases for this card in class using my Simply Scored. This new scoring tool makes making non-traditional folds a snap! This card is one of the more "serious" cards from the Valentine line up. Check in tomorrow to see the lighter side of the holiday when I let whimsy take over!

A New Challenge/ LBNL #1

I'm super excited to have been invited to try out a brand new challenge. It's called Last but not Least because it's posted on the last day of each month. DJ has put together a super fun challenge for the first round of her challenge: One Mat, One Stamp, One Sentiment, One Ribbon, One Button. In short, it's a One Card. Fun, huh? I just couldn't resist! It's super simple & yet I had to give it a good bit of thought. It made my brain work in different ways than a color or sketch challenge stretches me. Thanks, DJ! I took out my Always Elegant set (free from SAB) for its very first use. I decided it would look great framed by a textured piece of cardstock, so I used my circle cutter to make a 3" circle in a 4 x 4" square of textured Marina Mist. I'm not sure if it shows up in the photo, but I used my Versamarker, Heat & Stick Powder, and Dazzling Diamonds glitter to add accents to the stamped image. I did the same to the little brad that connects my sentiment to the card. Out came my Sticky Strip to make my new favorite ribbon formation. Then, all that was left was my button. I'm pretty sure a paper button counts & my Sweet Buttons Embosslit gave me lots of choices. I can't wait to check out the next challenge at the end of this month! Thanks to DJ for introducing me to a stamping adventure that I might have missed out on otherwise. :)