PPA297 and Giveaway!

Nine years ago yesterday my husband and I said "I do" under the tree in our back yard surrounded by our families and a few church friends.  I am so grateful for the blessed life The Lord has given us and I'm so thankful for the past 9 years.

But I won't bore you with sappy lovely dovey stuff - I'll just share the card I made Shawn instead! :)

The colors I chose were inspired by this week's Pals Paper Arts color combo.

I ordered the From Land to Sea set particularly for this lighthouse.  I love lighthouses and the symbolism of them.  I thought the sentiment from Going Global fit perfectly with the lighthouse and an anniversary card.

I wanted to make the look of the waves splashing against the lighthouse and sand and the Timeless Textures set was perfect.  I colored the lighthouse, Pool Party sky and added some sand that I drew "freehanded".

I also used the striped stamp from Timeless Textures to add some of the gray clouds.  A Wisteria Wonder button was added for a little more texture and color.

For the inside, I carried over the Timeless Textures and a strip of the black paper from Going Places DSP Stack.

Hope you all enjoyed my card.  Make sure to head on over to PPA's website.  And while you're stamping, make a birthday card to help us celebrated our FIRST BIRTHDAY at TGIF Challenges!

Our awesome "founder" Mercedes Weber is giving away a BRAND NEW, NOT-YET-TO-BE-RELEASED, stamp set from the upcoming SU! catalog!

Happy stamping!

-Holly 

Beautiful Blessing - TGIFC43 reminder!

If you follow me on Instagram - I promised earlier this week that I would share the gift I made my mother-in-law Linda.  Her birthday was yesterday and she does view my blog often, so I had to keep it secret :)

 

I wanted to make her something to let her know how special she is!  I had bought this frame at Christmas time to give her with a picture of her 3 grandboys but time got away from me and the frame moved to a pile in my craft room.  For her gift, I was inspired by the sketch for this week's challenge over at TGIF Challenges.  

If you haven't played yet, you have until 10pm PST tonight (2/24).

 

 

I haven't used the Remarkable You stamp set much since I've purchased it but I wanted to switch the flowers up from my original post. 

 

 

I stamped the sentiment on the background too just to add a little extra detail.

 

 

 

And who wouldn't want this cute Party Punch Pack??  The slider was simple to make - measuring the piece of DSP around the box with enough wiggle room to slide off and on easily.

 

 

Linda loved her gift and I was so glad she did.  It was fun to make!

 

 

Make sure you join us this week for the 43rd TGIF Challenge!  You have all day :)

 

-Holly

 

Gold Dipped Awesomeness! TGIFC34

It's certainly crunch time with Christmas just days away!  I have been done with shopping for a week or so now but wanted to make something for my husbands aunts, uncles and siblings.  I honestly wanted to make tins of cookies, but I'm so "cookied out" that I figured I'd pass.

 

Plus, our cruise is 5 weeks away - I can't afford it! haha!

 

So I decided to make boxes of homemade chocolates.  Waaaaay healthier, right?

 

 

 

I had a fun time decorating the boxes too.  Strips of red and gold give it the holiday glitz paired with the never boring Gorgeous Grunge splatter!  :)  The snowflakes were a hit this year for me and I was surprised to find 5 left!

  

 

My favorite part of the box though it definitely this "gold dipped" sentiment.  Looks like I have a new technique to play around with!  Reminds me of my Dipped Gingersnap Cookies.  Oh man... maybe I will make them after all!  Best cookies ever!

 

 

I'm also playing along with TGIF Challenges - it's been quite some time.  Happy to play along this week.  Head on over and see the talented stampers "Holly Jolly" ideas.

 

 

Have a blessed week and if I don't post before Friday - MERRY CHRISTMAS!! JESUS IS BORN!

 

 

 

TGIFC11 - A New Framelit?!

I needed to make a card for a friend today and I thought I would play along with the new TGIF Challenge.  I always like a sketch!  I've been pretty busy with our move and played last week for the first time in awhile.  And well... I finally won!  I was shocked, but just as honored to be picked! 

 

So here is the sketch for this week's challenge.  Click the picture to head on over to their site.

 

 

For some crazy reason I passed on ordering Awesomely Artistic with my first order from the new catalog.  Once I came to my senses and ordered it, I could hardly wait to receive it!

 

Here's my first card that I made with this set.  This set is pretty "AWESOME"!  I added an ombre look to the sentiment using Mint Macaron, Lost Lagoon and Island Indigo markers.

 

 

 I'm excited to show you something I discovered!  (Are you wondering how the tag was made!?)

 

I love trying to use my punches in new ways. Mercedes Weber recently used the bow builder punch to make this tag.  As I looked at the punch a little closer, I thought I'd try something new and fancy-up my corners. Yes... fancy-up :)

 

 

I layered the sentiment on Basic Black CS and punched the corners again.

 

 

Pretty cool, huh?

And just because I love to "fancy-up" the inside too... Here's a look at the inside of the card.

 

Sure hope you enjoyed this new trick! 

Please give it a try - and pin it too!

 

Happy stamping!

-Holly

TGIFC05 - May Remix!

Check this out!  The new challenge page that I've participated in over the last few weeks is celebrating their "first month anniversary" with an end of the month remix!  This is how it works:  First head on over to TGIF Challenges - Then pick two of the four challenge themes and mix them together for an all new project.  Pretty cool, huh?  I didn't have much time to think about this one.  We have family visiting in a few hours and my craft room is our guest room - so I had to make something quick and clean up!  But, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  Sometimes you just got to roll with it and not think too much :)

For this card, I combined the colors of the first challenge (Calypso Coral, Pool Party and Crushed Curry) and the sketch/layout of the second challenge.  

And quite honestly when I started out, for some reason I had three of the challenges in mind.  So technically, you could throw in a third challenge and say that the "Enjoy the Adventure Ahead" goes along with "graduation" theme. 

Maybe I'll get a bonus point? haha!

This bike is from Life's Adventures and it will sadly move to my "retired" stash next week.   The good news is, the new hostess sets are just as awesome!  

I sponged and colored the stars for the background.  It definitely needed something, and I wasn't diggin' an embossed layer with the DSP.  Lots of dimensionals on this card too!

The inside is simple but still fun!  

So there you have it! Of course I'd want you to try the challenge with me, but then my odds of winning a prize would be worse.

Yes, I said prize…  They're giving away a prize pack worth $25+ to the winner!  Sounds like a great bonus to me!  

Thanks for joining me today!  See you tomorrow for CYCI Sunday! =)

-Holly

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