Today is Memorial Day. I want to not only express my appreciation to those who died in service, but also to those currently serving – and all military families.

There was a mini VSN this weekend. I wasn’t home for the live postings, but I did managed to make a few cards before the deadline.

First up is my Guitar Queen. The challenge was to use a Beatles’ song as inspiration. I went with “While my Guitar Gently Weeps”….though really the only thing that translated was guitar! I went with a rocking look and bright colors. The layout is an old mojo sketch. The star was created with chipboard, white paint, pink craft ink, clear EP, and green dye ink – easy peasy! I stored much of my stamping supplies when I moved and I must have been in a very “minimalist” state of mind when I decided what would store and what would ship because I left almost all of my punches at home…boy do I miss my circle punches!! I would have added little circle mats to the brads, but making them now requires hand-cutting and I didn’t have time within the challenge limits.

Next up is my BlackJack card. This was a fun challenge – the idea was to create a card using the point system given and come up with a 21-point creation. I did it! This was a card that has been in my head since I saw the Fan Club April Inspiration. Again, I didn’t bring my cloud template so I made one. I always seem to think big when I made a cloud template, oh well. My sponge had a darker blue in it and I didn’t get it all out when I applied Bashful to the cardbase. I would also have added blue sky to the focal image panel. Ugh, sometimes time constraints really bug me!

Finally, my last VSN card uses strips of paper. I spent a lot of time with making the background, so the rest of the card is plain. I love the “plaid” background and had fun creating it! I only have one country-feel set – but it is a classic. I love my “On the Farm” set and will never get rid of it!

Thanks VSN Hostesses for some awesome challenges!

I made this card for the RESQ challenge (resq02), which is an inspiration picture of an adorable tea set. I also used the latest mojo sketch (mojo80).

The tea set reminded me of a kids tea party, so I went with soft colors and the little girl image.

The ribbon knot is supposed to be a rose. Since the ribbon is so narrow the rose isn’t as blossomy as what I’ve done with wider ribbons. I found instructions for doing the ribbon rose on Kirsten’s blog you can see her video tutorial here.

Today is PTI’s monthly blog hop. I’m sure I’m coming late to the party, but, I loved the challenge and needed to get this idea on paper! To view more of the blog hop entries, stop by the PTI forum. This month’s hop challenge is to create backgrounds – either using stamps made for creating backgrounds, or re-purposing other stamps.

I chose to use the Honey Bees set from PTI for my card. I used the honeycomb stamp to create my flower background. It isn’t much of a stretch, but I like how this turned out. I used a Mojo sketch (mojo78) for the layout.

This card took me forever to complete, but I am so happy with it! I started with the recent Mojo sketch. I knew I wanted a really pretty card I could send to a friend for her birthday (I know quite a few folk with March birthdays!!). Picking colors took a long time because I don’t have a lot of embellishments the same color as the ink/paper I chose, but I worked it out.

Before I packed up I received some new rubber from Stampin’Up, but I didn’t have a chance to play, so this is my first inking of Echoes of Kindness, and I love these images! I really enjoy watercoloring, so line-art is usually a good choice for me.

I also bought an Ornare template and this is the first use of that as well. The piercing really gives it a nice touch. Once I got everything stamped and pierced, I wasn’t sure where I was going to put the sentiment, but I liked adding another layer to the focal panel. The trick became finding appropriate fasteners. When will SU realize that we *need* brads in InColor colors?? These little rhinestone brads by Making Memories were close enough in color I could get away with it

The inside is becoming another little canvas for me…so fun to decorate!

I made this card way back in November for my sister-in-law’s birthday. She always strikes me as a fun and festive chick, so I wanted a bright card – and I went with the Cheers set from StampinUp. I created patterned paper once before and I really liked it, so I wanted to do that again. I choose a Mojo Sketch to get me started.

I stamped the images with Noir Palette ink and colored with my SU markers. To make the drink more focal, I added crystal effects to the glass and a tiny bit of glitter around the lip of the glass.

I even decorated the inside and the envelope. I’m really starting to enjoy doing that…it is like another little canvas. For the inside, I made the bottom part with masking and a stripey stamp from SU – then I just used a marker to draw the blue dividing line.

I haven’t stamped in what feels like forever, but is probably more realistically only a week. I’m determined to get back in the groove. I had a card I needed to make and I hoped that would spark some other ideas.

The first card is a thank you. I knew I wanted to do a pine tree for this recipient, and I needed the card to be a long card. The pine reminded me of the holidays, so I pulled out some old SU paper. I went with green and blue so it didn’t feel quite so holiday-ish. I went with white accents to balance the dark feeling from using a brown base.  Silly me, though, I knew the paper was Olive, and I thought I grabbed the Olive marker, but I got the Artichoke instead…so yes, my tree doesn’t “go” with the paper…but by the time it really bothered me, it was done! The square behind the tree is cheap chipboard (i.e., cereal box) covered with Cocoa paper and sponged with white ink.

When I was done I definitely wanted to keep stamping, so I checked out some challenges and decided to do both the Mojo Monday challenge from Julee, and the OCC stitching challenge. My daughter was invited to a birthday party this weekend, so I knew I wanted to do a girly birthday card.  When I looked at the Mojo sketch sideways, the optional triangle turned into a candle flame.  I recently appropriated an old pair of jeans into shorts for painting. I used the left over jean material and stitched a piece to Saffron cardstock. Then I stitched and sponged the edges of the Saffront layer. Since the cutting wasn’t too good on the jeans, I put everything on an angle.  I didn’t want to put accents at the bottom of the candle, like in the sketch, so instead I put eyelets throughout the candle. The flame is done with a teardrop punch which is then edged in red, sponged with orange, and stickled. I attached the flame with some wire. In retrospect, I should have used a brighter yellow or even pattern paper for the Saffron panel.

This card started with last week’s SCS Ways to Use it challenge. I stamped and colored the owls, but never got a chance to make a card with it. Then today Julee posted another mojo sketch and I was inspired!

This is a combo challenge card. Julee posts awesome sketches every Monday – she calls them Mojo Monday…I love that name! This card uses her Mojo 49 Sketch. The card also fulfills the VSN challenge “Alice in Wonderland” – to use pearl-ex, twinkling H2Os, lumiere or scallops.

I was inspired by Pine’s work with Twinkling H2Os on Kraft paper. I only have a couple Verve stamps, so I chose to use the star stamps. I simply painted the H2Os onto the stamp and stamped onto black cardstock. I also broke out some glittery paper that I purchased months ago from Cut Cardstock. The white and blue paper are both shimmery. Though, the photo doesn’t show it, there is a lot of shimmer in this card.