Happy Birthday, Mom.

This card is for my mother-in-law, whose birthday is today. I used the sketch from the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Challenge. I love sketches!

The card base is black CS with a block of Pink Armadillo DP from the Paper Studio on the upper portion. There is a piece of ribbon along the bottom of the DP. I adhered three rhinestones from Kaiser Craft to the lower right corner of the card.

The image is from the Birthday Chicken stamp set by Jami Bova from 2RedBananas, which I stamped with Jet Black StazOn on yellow DP from Crate Paper's Baby Bee collection and colored with DerWent watercolor pencils and Sakura Stardust pens. I cut the chicken out and used pop dots to put him on the black CS circle, which is matted with Pink Armadillo DP cut in a scalloped circle on my Cricut. The sentiment is also from the Birthday Chicken set and punched out with a circle punch. This was also adhered with popdots.

I liked this sketch and enjoyed playing in Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps Challenge. I hope my MIL has a great birthday today!

2RB Banana Split Sunday Challenge No. 7

Today is 2RedBananas.com’s Banana Split Sunday Challenge and the theme is Wearing Stripes. Just create any kind of papercraft project using stripes. One lucky, random participant will win a My Mind's Eye Bloom paper pack and a 12x12 sheet of coordinating die cut shapes. Go to the 2RedBananas blog for more information and to see samples from the other design team members.

I decided to make a little layout for a chipboard book (by Little Yellow Bicycle) that I'm making for Kate. All of the DP is from Baby Safari by Little Yellow Bicycle. The background is striped DP with a strip of animal DP along the bottom. There is a piece of ric rac along the bottom of the animal strip. The paper flowers are from Hullabaloo by Making Memories - one set has a fabric-covered brad in the center and the other has a sentiment from Jami Bova’s stamp set called Chicken Dumpling by 2RedBananas.

The photo was cut out using Nestabilities Label 1 die and matted on pink CS, then adhered to the layout.

I hope you’ll play along with us for this week’s challenge.

You're an Animal!

Today I am participating in two challenges - the 2RedBananas Banana Split Sunday Challenge and the Friday Sketchers' challenge. 2RB's challenge is to use your favorite animal on a project, and Friday Sketchers is... you guessed it, a sketch. Go to 2RedBananas blog to find out more about the challenge and see what the other DT members have done.

This base of this card is white CS and all of the DP is from Crate Paper's Baby Bee Collection. I adhered a block of the reverse side of Dragonfly on the base with another block of Caterpillar on top of that. There is a block of the front of Dragonfly on the right-hand side, a block of DP to the left of it, then a strip of Dragonfly across all of it. There are three glittered brads on the left side of the strip.

Since the challenge was to use my favorite animal, I finally got a chance to use my giraffe stamp. I love giraffes. I don't know what it is about them, but I think they're cute. I stamped the giraffe from Imaginisce on the reverse side of the Caterpillar DP with brown StazOn ink and colored it with watercolor pencils. I cut it out with Nestabilities Label 1 die and matted it on Caterpillar DP. I used pop dots to adhere it to the front of the card. There are some felt flowers from American Crafts to the right of the image with glittered brads through the centers. On the upper left corner is a piece of ric rac (also by Crate Paper) tied in a knot with a sentiment pop dotted on top of it.

I hope you decide to play along with us this week. Go to 2RB's blog for more info about the challenge.

Chicken Impossible

Today I am participating in a challenge by Inspirational Card Sketches Challenge Blog. They had a very lovely sketch, so I decided to use it to make a card for my Aunt Madelyn (who's birthday is also this week).

The card base is white CS and all of the DP is from Crate Paper's Sweet Branch Collection. I adhered a large block of Blossom DP to the card front, along with a block of the reverse side of Blossom on the left-hand side and a block of Hope DP on the right-hand side. The ribbon along the left-hand side is also from Crate Paper. Above the block of Hope DP I adhered some clear Dew Drops.

I used the Chicken Impossible stamp by 2RedBananas.com and the cake is from Stampin' Up. The images are stamped on watercolor paper with Jet Black StazOn ink and colored with Derwent watercolor pencils and a Tombow blender pen. There are also Sakura Stardust accents on the cake and chicken.

The sentiment is printed on the solid side of some Crate Paper DP.

This was a fun challenge. Of course, I always appreciate a good sketch! Stop by Inspirational Card Sketch Challenge Blog and check it out.

Happy Bird Day Card

Just a quick note to remind everyone that 2RedBananas.com's new stamps for April are available on the website today. Stop by and check them all out!



Today I am participating in a challenge from Just Christmas and Birthday Cards. It's a sketch (which I always appreciate), and you can do both a Christmas and birthday card or just one or the other. I am submitting a birthday card - which I did for my Aunt Barbara's birthday later this week.

The card base is pink CS and all of the DP is from the Laundry Line collection by My Mind's Eye. I adhered a block of Lucky Run Paper to the left-hand side and a block of Party Flowers Paper on the right-hand side. The little flowers in the upper and lower corners were punched from pink CS and adhered with pop dots. Each flower has Sakura Stardust ink in its center. I adhered a strip of pink CS down the center with a piece of ribbon and a bow(Michael's) on top of it.

The image and sentiment are from the Birthday Chicken stamp set by 2RedBananas.com, and it's stamped on watercolor paper with Jet Black StazOn ink and colored with Derwent watercolor pencils. There are also some Sakura Stardust accents on the hat and cake. I matted it on pink CS and used pop dots to adhere it to the card.

This was a fun challenge and I really liked Just Christmas and Birthday Card's sketch. I'll have to check them out next Monday, too.

2RB Sneak Peeks Day 6 and Sunday Challenge

Today 2RedBananas.com is not only having its sneak peek of the new stamp sets being released next week, it's also having the Banana Split Sunday Challenge (a day early due to Easter Sunday). So... I have two projects to show you.

The first, for the sneak peek, is a card made using one of 2RB's exclusive stamp sets "The Early Birds" by Abbey Westemeyer.

The card base is cream CS with a large block of Imaginisce DP on the left side and a smaller block of the reverse side of the DP on the right, which has pink Sakura Stardust ink in the centers of the flowers. I tied a piece of celery grosgrain ribbon in a bow and adhered it along the seam of the two papers.

The image (2RB) and sentiment (Making Memories) are stamped with Jet Black StazOn ink on white CS and colored with watercolor pencils and a little pink Sakura Stardust ink. I also added googly eyes to the bird. The bird is adhered to the card front along with a row of small flowers (Prima) with pink rhinestone (Michael's) centers.

2REDBANANAS.COM BANANA SPLIT SUNDAY CHALLENGE:


For my second project I created a layout for Kate's baby album for the 2RB Banana Split Sunday Challenge, which is a sketch challenge this week. Go to 2RB's blog to see the awesome sketch and give it a try yourself.

The base of the layout is brown CS. All of the DP is from Rusty Pickle's Chocolate Bunnies collection. I adhered a block of Spring Chicken DP on the CS, with a small block of Chocolate Bunnies in the lower right-hand corner and a block of Peter Cottontail on the upper left-hand side. The photo is matted on the reverse of the Chocolate Bunnies DP and adhered to the layout.

The rhinestone flourish adhered to the upper right-hand corner is by Best Occasions. The sentiment is printed on cream CS. The bunny image (from 2RB's stamp set The Gift) is stamped with brown ink on the reverse side of the Peter Cottontail DP and adhered with pop dots. The date is stamped underneath with brown ink using Making Memories magnetic date stamp set.

I love sketch challenges - they take all the pressure off of me and just let me play around. I hope you go to 2RB's blog and join us in this week's challenge.

Don't forget - all of the new stamp sets will be available on the 2RedBananas site beginning April 13th.

Best wishes for a very blessed Easter!

2RedBananas Week of Peeks - Day 5

For the fifth day of 2RedBananas.com's peeks of its new stamp sets to be released on April 13th, the DT is using two different sets. I chose to use the set called Hawaiian Chicken by Jami Bova.

The card base is DP by the Paper Loft called Wild Blue Yonder, with a block of Simple Stripes (also the Paper Loft) on the top 2/3 of the card. I stamped the image on watercolor paper with Jet Black StazOn ink and colored it with watercolor pencils, then cut it out with the Nestabilities Label 1 die. The sentiment "Aloha" was also stamped with StazOn. I matted the image on a Label cut from the Wild Blue Yonder DP. I added a piece of ribbon to the bottom portion of the card and tied a second piece around it in a knot.

These chicken stamp sets by Jami are really cute and easy to use. Please go to 2RB's blog to see more peeks and what the DT is doing:

Deb ♥ Jeanette ♥ Maraya ♥ Teresa ♥ Wendy

And check back tomorrow to see what new set will be used.