No Coloring Challenge

A no coloring challenge? No Copics or Prismas? Well that is the challenge on the Riley and Company challenge blog this week. I think it actually took me longer to make a no coloring card than it takes me to make one where I have colored the image. Since all white was too much of a challenge for me, I decided to stamp Riley onto kraft card stock and then I stamped it again onto a blue piece of paper and then again onto a brown piece. That gave me a little color to work with. I paper pieced Riley's cookie and the mug he is holding. I used Cookie Riley. papers from making Memories, a Fiskars border punch and a flower and brad from my stash.

I am still hard at work on hubby's birthday gift! Our anniversary is next month, the week before Christmas so I am actually trying to work on things for that too. I can't wait to tell you what I am doing for the anniversary! I am having too much fun, but can't show it yet because I am afraid he might look around my blog looking for hints.

Have a great day!

A Good Place for a Nap

This pretty much sums up my philosophy in life since I am a big fan of naps! Shirley's 2 Girls is having a design team call and you can read all the information here. Since I have been having so much fun with their stamps and playing along with their Twisted Thursday challenge, I decided to submit my projects and hope for the best! They provided a sketch for us to follow and gave us the twist of using Paper Piecing on our project. I thought this chair would be the perfect thing for the paper piecing part of the challenge. I stamped the image directly onto the striped paper and then cut it out and added the silver brads to the chair arms. Then I stamped the image twice onto white paper, on one, I colored the dog and cut it out and the other became my main image panel. The circles were cut out with Nestabilities and I ran the smaller one through the Big Shot with a Swiss Dots folder. The ribbon is actually a stamp from Clear Dollar Stamps, from a set called Embellish It. I haven't done a lot of paper piecing, but recently I found some small, very sharp scissors which makes cutting out those pieces a lot easier. so I think I might try it a little more often.  Supplies used: main stamp image from Shirley's 2 Girls, paper and card stock are DCWV, brads are from Jo-Ann's, CB Swiss Dots folder, circle Nestabilities and ribbon stamp is from CDS.

Paper Piecing

This was my first attempt at paper piecing. I have seen a lot of cards made using this technique and I have been wanting to try it. I love the look but was a little intimidated because I don't really enjoy cutting out small things. I thought this My Favorite Things stamp set would be great to start with, it's not too small. I stamped the image and sentiment with Brilliance ink and colored in the coffee mug and arms with Copic markers. The paper on the dress and the background paper are both from DCWV. The pink is from a box of DCWV pre-made cards, the spring collection, I think. The brads are from Jo-Ann's they were in a larger pack with a lot of bright colors. Pretty simple, but I liked it. It is something that I think I will do again.

I have learned an important lesson; never agree to do something without getting very clear details of what your involvement with be and get it in writing! Don't take anyone at their word when they say three songs and add the words "maybe a couple more"! Three plus a couple does not equal twelve or thirteen. I am trying to learn all these songs and (gulp) learn them before Saturday morning. Fortunately someone took a couple of hours out of their busy schedule today to help me, so I am not feeling quite as sick about it. He also talked his wife into helping me with a couple of the songs too. Have a great week!