Hello all and happy Thursday.  Once again, we are almost to the end of the week!  Today’s card is a fun little number that I put together using a couple of challenges – Sweet Sunday Sketch and Sunday Stamps - color.

I went through my patterned paper to find something that would work well for the color challenge.  After I found the paper, I matched it up with some lost lagoon cardstock.  They look gorgeous together!  I stamped the image of cornflowers on the white and ran it thru a stitched rectangle die.

The cornflowers were stamped by inking up the image with markers and then adding a sentiment and some pearls.  I added a bit of twine and put it all together.  I thought the sentiment was fun – it reminds me of the show Friends when Joey would always ask “how you doin’?”!

Thanks for stopping by today!  Be sure to stop in tomorrow!

Have you played along with the Retro Rubber challenge yet?  What?  You haven’t?  Now is the time people!  Just add your creation to the challenge HERE!  It’s all about May flowers – so whip up a cute flowery card and you are in!

Supplies:  CS:  SSS fog.  SU! lost lagoon, PTI white, dsp from stash.  Stamps:  Rubbernecker cornflowers and Avery Elle simply said hello.  Inks:  SU! markers – lost lagoon, pool party, garden green and pear pizzazz.  Memento black.  Other:  PTI linen impression plate, Lil Inkers stitched rectangles, twine, pearls.

Welcome to the Pals Blog Hop for May where we are preparing for the retirement of some Stampin' Up! products.  Though it may be goodbye to some very loved supplies, it will make room for the much anticipated new catalog products.  We hope you enjoy the Pals' creative projects.

You may just be starting the blog hop or may have come from Debra Simonis at Deb's Stampin' Grounds, number 21 on the Pals Hop.  If you get off track at any time, the full lineup below will help you move along from blog to blog so you see all the projects.

Hello all!  Today I am saying good bye to the angled tag topper punch, blooming with kindness and the in-colors!  I know, that is a lot to say good bye to!

I decided to make tags and celebrate one last time the retiring in colors.  I stamped off each color one time before stamping on the tag. 

I added the sentiments from the stamp set and then added a few rhinestones, retiring twine and some of the retiring sequins! 

Thanks for stopping by today!

The next stop is Dawn Tidd at Tiddbits from Dawn, number 23 on the Pals Blog Hop!  Thanks for visiting; I hope to see you on next month’s Pals Hop!

Blog Hop Line-up:

1. Maggie Mata at Maggie Made Cards
2. Becky Volpp at Inkblossomwithbecky
3. Sue Becker at RnR Stamping
4. Candy Ford at Stamp Candy
5. Lisa Pretto at InkBig Academy Stamps!
6. Martie Pollard at The Crafty Bandit
7. Nicole Watt at Pixel Maven's Retreat
8. Beth McCullough at Stamping Mom
9. Lisa Ann Bernard at Queen B Creations
10. Pamela Sadler at Stampin Pink Rose
11. Patti MacLeith at Papercrafts By Patti
12. Natalie Bradley at Soirée by Natalie Bradley
13. Karen Hallam at Karen's Stampin' Habit!
14. Wendy Klein at Doggone Delightful Stampin'
15. Jackie Diediker at Stampin' Jackie
16. Peggy Noe at prettypapercards
17. Jennifer Michalski at Stamping Serenity
18. Kerry Willard Bray at Peonies and Paper Chains
19. Amy Hoptay at Inking of You
20. Susan Itell at Simple Stampin
21. Debra Simonis at Deb's Stampin' Grounds
22. Jane Knudsen at see jane stamp
23. Dawn Tidd at Tiddbits from Dawn
24. Michelle Gleeson at StampinMojo
25. Sherrie Gross at Stampin' Sunshine
26. Angela Curry at Kindred Stampers
27. Mary Fish at Stampin' Pretty
28. Denise Hoepfner at The Mountain Magpie
29. Nancy Gleason at My Stampin Space
30. Kalyn Shubnell at The Stamping Chronicles
31. Katy McGloin at Just Fun Stamping
32. Lynn Kolcun at Stamping With Avery's Owlery

Welcome to the Retro Rubber challenge #14!  This challenge celebrates flowers!  After all it is May!  All you need to do is make a card with flowers on it – easy!  And don’t forget that your stamps need to be older than a year!

My card today celebrates my mom!  This is the card I gave her for Mother’s Day this year.  That and a free bouquet of lilacs picked in her yard.  She loved them!

I started off with this lovely patterned paper from Chickaniddy.  I just discovered this paper and love it!  The image is from SU! – On the Grow that I colored with my chalks.  After I cut the image out using a stitched circle I popped it up on the card front and added some pearls and rhinestones.

OK – now it’s your turn!  Get out your flower stamps and get to work!  Link up HERE!

Although I made this card for the Retro Rubber challenge, it works beautifully for the Friday Mashup challenge this week!

Thanks for stopping by today!  Be sure to pop in tomorrow – it’s the Pals Blog Hop - yippee!

Supplies:  CS:  PTI white, SU! pool party, Chickaniddy yippee paper.  Stamps:  SU! on the grow and PTI KIS mother.  Inks:  Chalks and memento black ink.  Other:  Lil Inkers stitched circles, MFT blueprints 20, and PTI linen impression plate.  Pearls and rhinestones.

Hello all!  Monday again!  I had a chance to get quite a bit of crafty time in the ole craft cave this weekend.  In between covering flowers in case of a freeze!  We have it easy – I am hearing some places are under winter weather advisories or worse yet – tornados!  I hope where ever you are – you are safe!

Today I am playing along with two challenges – CAS(E) this Sketch! and the Paper Players.  A sketch and a color challenge.  Today’s clean and simple card was a lot of fun to put together!

I started with the Altenew Painted Butterflies stamps.  These are wonderful stamps – easy two and three step stamping to create a very striking image.  I stamped the outline of the butterfly in black and then used SU! lost lagoon to add the color.  I used second generation stamping (stamp off one time before applying) to be able to use one color of ink (other than the black).

I added pistachio pudding with a little green branch that the butterfly is going to land on.  Finally I snuck sahara sand in with both the card base and a few random dots.  I love the texture that running the card front thru the linen impression plate brings so I added the sentiment, “texturized it”, and added some pearls.  I layered everything up and I was done.

A beautiful card that with a sentiment or color change could work for most any reason!  And perfect for mass producing (am thinking this is the card for my monthly card club!).

Thanks for stopping by today!  Be sure to pop in tomorrow – it is time for a new Retro Rubber challenge!

A huge thank you to the Paper Players for picking THIS card as A Cut Above last week!

Supplies:  CS:  SU! sahara sand.  PTI white.  Inks:  SU! pistachio pudding, lost lagoon, sahara sand.  Memento black.  Stamps:  SU! cottage garden.  SSS congratulations.  Altenew painted butterflies.  Other:  PTI linen impression plate and pearls.

Whenever I see a carousel I think of the movie Mary Poppins.  I can’t decide if the horses bouncing off the carousel freaks me out or not!  Either way, I decided the carousel horses would make an excellent mode of transportation!   I am playing along with three challenges – SugarPea Designs sketch, the Paper Players theme – transportation, and Pals Paper Arts color challenge – hello honey, baked brown sugar and coastal cabana.  I took a couple of weeks off from the PPA challenge but decided these colors lent themselves to a carousel!

I started off with SU! hello honey as my base and added a layer of white and baked brown sugar.  I ran the baked brown sugar and a small piece of coastal cabana thru the PTI admit one impression plate.  It was the perfect way to add texture and interest.

I stamped the image and colored with markers in the PPA colors.  After that I used my circle dies to add a layer of hello honey and coastal cabana behind the image.  I stamped the sentiment on a scrap piece of baked brown sugar and ran it thru the impression plate as well.  I added a piece of washi and some rhinestones and layered everything up.  I finished off the edges with my ticket corner punch.

Thanks for stopping by today!  I don’t believe I will be posting on Friday – work and life has kept me busy enough this week that I haven’t had a chance to steal some crafty time.  So I will be back on Monday with some new projects!

My best wishes for a lovely Mother’s day to all of you!  And a happy birthday to my nephew Mike - he turns 17 today (even though he does not read my blog!)

Supplies:  CS:  SU! hello honey, coastal cabana, baked brown sugar.  PTI white.  Stamps/dies:  Lawn Fawn admit one stamps.  PTI admit one impression plate, ticket corner punch.  Other:  SU! markers, memento black, washi, rhinestones.

Here we go – half way thru the week already!  Today’s post will be short and sweet – just like the card!  I am using the sketch from CAS(E) this sketch.  How cool is this sketch?  I loved it – my mind wandered around all of the possibilities!

I decided to use my Reverse Confetti square tag and a bit of paper from my Simon Says Stamp March card kit.  I paired the paper up with kraft and pistachio pudding. 

The sentiment is a rub on from the March kit as well.  I added a bit of twine to finish off the tag but wrapped it under the paper.

See?  Short and sweet!  Don’t forget about the Retro Rubber challenge – it’s anything goes!  Click HERE to link up your gorgeous creations!

Thanks for stopping by today!  Be sure to pop in tomorrow! In case you are wondering – I really appreciate you taking time out of your busy day to stop by!  I sincerely thank you for that!

Supplies:  CS:  SU! pistachio pudding.  SSS March card kit.  PTI kraft.  Other:  RC square tag.  PTI linen impression plate and twine.

Welcome to the Retro Rubber challenge part two!  We are on our second week of our Anything Goes challenge!  So break out your older stamps and play along with us!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!  Can you believe I have a stamp that says that?  I couldn’t!  I was searching for something else and came across that.  Of course, I knew I would have to do a card!

Today I am celebrating with the wish for a little salt and lime (and tequila of course!).  The sentiment I am using today is part of the Reverse Confetti fresh n fruity stamp set.  And the perfect sentiment for Cinco de Mayo!

I started with some sweet taffy dsp from SU! and paired it with old olive and daffodil delight.  These colors are happy together.  I die cut the limes and ran them thru the PTI linen impression plate.  I thought they would look authentic with little ridges!  I added the sentiment and some bling and put the card together.

I hope you have a great 5^th of May!  Thanks for stopping by today!  Be sure to stop in tomorrow!

Click HERE to link up your Retro Rubber creations!

Thank you to the wonderful crew over at CAS(E) this Sketch for honoring me with an honorable mention for THIS card!

Supplies:  CS:  SU! old olive, daffodil delight, sweet taffy dsp.  PTI white.  Stamp/die:  RC fresh n fruity stamp/die.  PTI KIS anniversary and year round happiness.  PTI linen impression plate.  Other:  rhinestones and memento black ink.

I was very slow to warm up to crisp cantaloupe but that is going to be one color I am going to miss when the old in colors retire in a month.  A lot.  That and coastal cabana.  *sigh*   Hopefully these colors will make a reappearance whenever SU! decides to update their color families.

I am playing along with The Friday Mashup this week.  The challenge is to use either the sketch or a retiring SU! stamp or both. 

I started off by making a tag with the angled tag topper punch.  Then I stamped the love and sympathy image on the tag using a combination of markers on my image.  To get the color variations I wanted, I colored directly on the flower in crisp cantaloupe and then around the center with calypso coral.  I used the same method on the stems by coloring the wild wasabi first and then garden green.

I wanted the sentiment to be off to the side of the tag but didn’t have enough room so I decided to let the sentiment overlap on the tag and pop it up a bit.  Both the tag and the sentiment were layered/stamped on a piece of crisp cantaloupe that I ran thru the PTI linen impression plate.  After that it was just a matter of adding some bling, twine and the base of calypso coral.

Thanks for stopping by today!  Be sure to pop in tomorrow!

Don’t forget about the Retro Rubber challenge – it’s anything goes.  Easy right?  Make a card (with older stamps) and link it up HERE!

Supplies:  CS:  SU! crisp cantaloupe, calypso coral.  PTI white.  Inks:  SU! markers – crisp cantaloupe, calypso coral, wild wasabi and garden green.  Memento black.  Stamps:  SU! love and sympathy.  Other:  pearls, rhinestones, twine, SU! angle tag topper punch, and PTI linen impression plate.

Happy May Day!  Wasn’t this a great day when we were kids?  We had a lot of kids in the neighborhood so there was a whole lot of May baskets going around.  We would hang the basket on the doorknob, ring the doorbell and run like crazy because who wanted to get caught?  We just couldn’t figure out back then that it was fun to get caught!

So I am celebrating May Day with a bouquet of flowers!  It’s a shame that May Day has gone by the wayside so in my small way I am bringing it back!

I started off with this great three step stamp set from Rubbernecker.  I stamped the image in black and then the next two steps in daffodil delight and crushed curry.  Love those colors together!  I used a piece of crushed curry for the card front after I ran it through the linen impression plate.

Do you know how hard it is to find a sentiment that says “Happy May Day”?  Try impossible but I used a combination of stamps – I used the happy and day from a Valentine’s Day sentiment and the May comes from my Project Life stamps.  A few stamps later and I have a sentiment!!  And until I told you, you would have no idea that those stamps are from different companies but the fonts match!

I popped up the sentiment under the flowers to follow the Sweet Sunday Sketch that I am using today.  I added some pearls and I was done.  I love this sketch and am crazy about this card – the colors are so happy!

Well, that is it for me this week!  I will be back on Monday!  I hope you all have a great weekend and enjoy your May Day!

Thanks for stopping by today!

PS – Retro Rubber challenge – click HERE to link up your anything goes project!

Supplies:  CS:  PTI rustic white, SU! crushed curry.  Stamps:  PTI KIS valentine.  SU! Project Life day to day.  Rubbernecker layered flowers 2.  Inks:  SU! daffodil delight, crushed curry and memento black.  Other:  pearls and PTI linen impression plate.