A Sweet Inspiration for PP294 and TGIFC55

Happy Friday everyone!  I've been anxious to share pictures of the cake I made this past weekend for Mother's Day, but I first wanted to make a card inspired by the colors.  I am a huge fan of i am baker and recently saw her similar cake on Instagram account and knew that was the cake I wanted to make.

Since I'm a mom of three little boys, I don't get to make pretty cakes too often.  This one was a lot of fun to make and I must say - I was pretty dang proud.  

So how about the card to match?  Well, while I was scrolling through some challenge sites, I came across this one at The Paper Players - pretty awesome right!?  I didn't even NEED to pick the colors, they did it for me! :)

I still think I will make a card with the blue added in... I'm thinking Pool Party?

I'm also showcasing our new sketch over at TGIF Challenges.  It's my week off so I thought I'd just make a card with the sketch anyway.   And please forgive me - I did not use just Stampin' Up! products.  I'm about 99.9% SU, but every once in awhile I find something I love that isn't SU.  This die from Concordand9th was too awesome to pass up!

First up is my card for The Paper Players:

I love this framelit and the sentiment :) So cute!  I wanted it to stand out with a solid background so I stamped the images from Choose Happiness on the white cardstock.

For the TGIF card, I wanted to use the same colors and same stamp set.  I took the letters that came out of the previous card and used them instead of tossing them.

To line the sentiment up just right, I used the Stamp-a-ma-jig.  Really pleased with how both turned out!

I will say though, my cake was better than my cards! :) Make sure you head to both sites and play along!  The Paper Players one ends TODAY but you have until next Thursday for TGIFC55.  

Have a great weekend!

-Holly 

A Graduation Card for Jacquie!

Yesterday we went to a graduation party for my husband's cousin Jacquie.  She just graduated Saturday from Iowa State.  I wanted to incorporate the school colors of Red and Gold.

I also used two of my favorite papers that are retiring - Typeset DSP and Fancy Foil Designer Vellum.  I layered them onto the Very Vanilla and Real Red cardstock.  I cut the numbers using the Big Shot and the Large Numbers Framelits.  The graduation cap I cut by hand and attached with a dimensional.  The candy dots were on the clearance rack last week but are gone now - sorry!

She loved the card and I'm so happy she did!  We are proud of Jacquie and we're anxious for her to start her new job in Iowa.

I missed last week's challenge over at SU Only challenges (congrats theme!) but this week's challenge is using our favorite background papers.  If I had to pick one, it'd be the Typeset DSP.  I even ordered an extra pack just because I love it!

Hope you head on over to SU-Only Challenges and see all of the other great creations.

Have a great Tuesday!

-Holly 

Mother's Day - You Are Made of Wonderful for GDP035

What a beautiful Mother's Day!  It was warm, sunny and filled with so much joy and love.  And sick kids... 

At 5am this morning our middle son woke up crying.  He had thrown up in his bed.  By 9am he was on his second bath of the morning and our youngest wasn't feeling the greatest either.  Lots of clean up and cuddles before church.  But the kids are feeling much better and I wouldn't trade the yucky parts of the best job in the world for anything!

I hope you had a wonderful Sunday too!  We spent the day with my husbands parents, grandparents and his aunt and uncle and cousin. Good food, cake (more on that later this week), fun at the park and a campfire.  God is good and I'm grateful for His many blessings.

I wanted to share with you the card I made for my sweet Mother-in-law.  I absolutely love this new technique I discovered last week.  You can stretch and smash the Honeycombs and make a very cool embellishment.

The calligraphy "mom" is not Stampin' Up! but I love it too much not to use it! :)

For the cards background and the heart around "mom", I used the Project Life stamp set called Memories in the Making.  I love the little cluster of swirls - it makes such a fun background!  You don't have to use the PLxSU sets just for your scrapbook pages...

I am entering this card in this week's "Project Life" theme challenge over at the Global Design Project.

Hopefully by mid-week I can start a page for the challenge too!  I took lots of cute pictures of the boys yesterday.  Sure is great being their momma! :)

I hope you enjoy the rest of your day! 

Blessings to you!

-Holly 

Endless Birthday Wishes for TGIFC54

Hello everyone!  Happy Friday to you!  It is going to be a gorgeous day here in Minnesota.  Forecast is mid-80s... Yes, 80s in MN! I didn't even know that happened.  :)  Since it's Friday, that means there's a new challenge over at TGIF.  Here is our summer-ish color combo that had me a little stumped at first!

When I first saw this color combo, I was a little worried.  I do love the two blues together (they are my blog colors) but the yellow was throwing me off!  The first thing I thought was that the colors would make a fun kid or guy card.  I do have a few guy birthdays this month in our family so I wanted to make some birthday cards.  This also is the set I'm leaning towards for my Stamps in the Mail class, so I wanted to try a few cards out with Endless Birthday Wishes.

I love this Pool Party Glitter Ribbon.  

I added some of my favorite accessory at the moment - the It's My Party Enamel Dots.  I also added some Crushed Curry ink around the cake using the ink pad and Aqua Painter.  

For this card, I pulled the ribbon apart so that I would have some strands to tuck behind the cake.  I originally had more white space but thought the card needed something.  I added the Happy Birthday sentiment and some Island Indigo splatter. 

For the swirls and dots I used the Memories in the Making (swirl) and Wondrous Wreath (dots).  Shannon Lane used the dots a few weeks ago on this card and I loved the idea!

So there you have it! I hope that you join us this week for this fun color combo!  Can't wait to see what you come up with!  I also am entering my white card in Just Add Ink's sketch challenge this week!  (Maybe you could combine both challenges too!)

-Holly 

The Creation Station Blog Hop - Masculine Birthdays!

Wow! Can you believe it is officially May?? Welcome to our monthly hop with the Creation Station!  If you came from the lovely Kimberly Van Diepen's blog, thank you so much for continuing on to me!  She's a tough act to follow!  Make sure you make your way around the entire hop - you won't be disappointed!

This month we are highlighting In the Meadow and Going Global for our masculine birthday theme.  I chose the In the Meadow set because, 1- it's awesome! and 2 - it's carrying over to the new catalog!  Going Global is also another awesome set and you can still order it off the retiring list.

I'm also featuring one of the hostess sets called Happy Birthday, Everyone!  I wanted to make a few cards because I have a few guys in my family that have birthdays this month.

The DSP that I used here is the It's My Party Stack - This is definitely worth the big price.  Some of the best DSP ever - AND there's some great neutral colors mixed in with the bright cheerful stuff!

I chose the mountain scene - think it's pretty manly and it makes a great focal piece.

One with Basic Black Baker's Twine... 

and the other with Linen Thread.

I also wanted to make a gift box.  I stamped the tree image all around the Tag a Bag Gift Box.  These are such great boxes and I'm sad to see them retiring.  It's a good thing I have about 20 saved up!

I lightly stamped the trees on the tag and added the same DSP from the card.  I added some It's My Party Enamel Dots too.  

I cannot wait to give the box away!  I really do love those trees wrapped all the way around!

Thank you so much for joining me today!  You can go back to Kimberly's page, or on to the next - which is the talented Jennifer Downey!

Have a wonderful week!  I will be placing my preorder on Tuesday! YAY!  Can't wait to share some of the great stuff that's coming out in a month!

Blessings!

-Holly 

TGIFC53 - Casing April Favorites!

Wow!  What a great turn out we had last week for the two challenges over at TGIF Challenges!  We had such great cards for the "All About Mom" theme and you all did a great job helping us celebrate our first blog birthday!  We will announce who won the free stamp set soon :)

Usually at the end of the month we do our Remix challenge .. But things have changed and I'm excited to say we are now doing something different at the end of the month.  Now instead of mixing 2 or more of the monthly's challenges together, YOU get to pick your inspiration.

You could pick any card from April - a design team member, a challenger, a winner... YOU decide! 

So for today's card, I chose Krista Frattin's card.  I love her chic style and soft color choices.  She has been one of my favorite designers since I saw her at Convention a few years ago.  (Long story short, I actually thought she was Mindy from BadaBing Paper-Crafting.  I went up to her and told her I loved her blog and then said, you're Mindy Backes right?.... yeah... that was embarrasing.)  Fast forward a few years and I'm on a Design Team with her! Say whaaaaa? 

I really like the technique Krista used on her background.  She sponged the white cardstock with versamark ink and embossed it with silver.  However, mine didn't look as cute.  I decided to stamp the background with the Watercolor Wash stamp in So Saffron ink.  I used the Botanical Builder framelits and cut white and vellum flowers.

The strip of filter paper is actually a Honeycomb Embellishment that I stretched apart and flattened out.  I did not have any filter paper, but I'm loving the way this looks! Might have to try the other colors.

So this card is for my best friend.  Her and her husband adopted little E last September, so this will be her first Mother's Day.  They waited years to be placed with a child and I'm so happy for them. God is good! :) 

Hope to see you playing along this week!  You can head on over to TGIF Challenges for all the links for April's challenges.  Pick and choose something that inspires you and make it your own! 

Have a great weekend!

-Holly 

Picture Perfect Mother's Day for TGIFC52 & Giveaway!

Just a quick post today to remind you of a few important things:

1 - The TGIF Challenges site just turned ONE and we have a giveaway! (ends tomorrow)

2 - The TGIF Challenges weekly challenge is all about MOMS <3 (also ends tomorrow)

3 - Mother's Day is less than 2 weeks away!

Guess you better get stamping!

Here's a card I made last night - and not quite sure if I will give it to my mom or my MIL since they both read my blog!  Either way, I hope it gives you an idea for this awesome Picture Perfect stamp set.

I will say it again and again... I'm not a big floral fan when it comes to stamping, but SU! is doing a pretty good job at persuading me!  I love these roses and how beautiful they look with the different shades.  Really gives it a 3D look.

To make this a true Mother's Day card, I inked the 'mother' part of the sentiment from Crazy About You and stamped the background.  I stamped the word off before stamping the background because I wanted it to be subtle, but I think it may be too subtle.  Can you see it?

If you have time, head on over to TGIF Challenges and play along!  You have until 10am PST Thursday, April 28th!

Blessings!

-Holly