Cupcake Inspirations "Sparkle" Challenge

Happy Sunday! It seems like it has been FOREVER since I have blogged. My life has been busy and since I have had to choose whether to craft or to blog, the crafting has come first. How do you schedule it all in? Do you craft late at night? Do you blog a full week at once? Enquiring minds want to know!! Okay, maybe just my enquiring mind. The way other people do things always fascinates me.

It is snowing AGAIN here in Connecticut. What else is new? Actually, we had a full week without snow but had bitter temperatures. I will take that any day! My daughter wants a snow day tomorrow but I think she will be disappointed.

Today I am sharing a card I created for the Cupcake Inspiration Blog's "Sparkle" challenge. It is the 300th Challenge celebration so come on over and join them. It is also one of those self imposed "on my desk" challenges that I often make myself do. My desk is A MESS and making myself use the bits and pieces helps clean it up.

Here is the card I created:

Here is the Inspiration Image:

As soon as I saw this photo, I knew I was going to use my Paper Trey Ink "Baker's Dozen" cupcake image that was lying on my desk. The cupcake was stamped in Memento black ink and colored in using Copic markers. To give the image a bit of sparkle, I decided to add some gold Stickles.

While the Stickles were drying, I cut a piece of blue polka dot paper 5 1/2" by 4 1/4" (also lying on my desk) and adhered it to a white card that folded from the top. Next I used Paper Trey Ink's "Center Stage Cover plate" that I had previously die cut from white paper and adhered that over the blue.

I knew I wanted to use a glitter star die cut that I had bought from JoAnn's but it just did not look right against the background. I decided to use a white strip to break the background up. I embossed a line on the top and bottom and then stamped a sentiment. This was the only element that was not actually on my desk!

After adhering the white strip, I then used a liquid glue to adhere the chipboard star. I then used foam adhesive to adhere the cupcake over the star. I really LOVE the way this card came out!!

That is all for today. I appreciate you stopping by. Have a great night!!

Supplies:

InLinkz.com

Always Playing with Paper Sketch Challenge

Happy Saturday!! I am so glad it is the weekend!!! I only had three days of work this week but somehow it seemed longer then a normal week. Anyone ever feel that way after going back to work after a few days off?

It is FREEZING here in the Northeast. Snow is forecasted for tonight and we are supposed to have a bit of a warm front come through tomorrow with rain. I am really not looking forward to the rain since it is supposed to go down into the teens on Monday. I am not a huge fan of an icy mess.... Here's hoping that the weather man is wrong.

Since it is cold outside, I have spent the day scrapbooking and I created a card for a challenge. My mojo has not been around this week and I always feel off when I don't have the will to create. It took me making myself sit down at my desk today AWAY from the computer screen to get a bit of it back. It was fun to play around with my stuff again.

Today I will share with you the card I created for a challenge over at Always Playing with Paper Blog. The challenge was to use the color suggestions AND the sketch OR just the sketch or the color challenge. I chose to just use the sketch and here is what I came up with.

It is a bit of a bright card but I wanted to try and use the colors in the cup cake for the background. The cupcake was stamped with Paper Trey Ink's "Baker's Dozen" stamp set that I bought a few weeks ago. I then colored the image in with Copic Markers. I have to admit that I am a sucker for cupcake stamps. I have a few different sets and it always makes me so happy when I use them.

Here is the challenge image:

In place of the butterfly, I chose to use the cupcake. I used a matching die from the set to create the frame I used on my card. I had to cut off a piece that held the banner so I could turn horizontally.

You can see by the above photo that my cutting was not perfect. It was a difficult angle to get it how I wanted it. I created one banner at the bottom of the card and in place of the second banner, I used a row of die cut hearts.

The last step was to place Pretty Pink Posh Sequins randomly around the area and on the cupcake to give it a little zing.

It was a really easy card to put together and I am happy with the way it turned out.

Now I need to clean up my extremely messy room before we go out to a belated birthday dinner for me tonight. I turned 46 (Ugh!!!) on February 15th and it was just too cold to go out that night. Instead we ate home made birthday cake for dinner. That is my kind of birthday!!

I thank you for stopping by and hope the rest of your weekend is fabulous.

xoxo

Supplies:

InLinkz.com

No Mojo and a CASEd Valentine

Happy Valentines Day!! I hope your day is filled with hearts and flowers. Mine, not so much BUT my husband and daughter are at a robotics tournament so I have the house to myself. That is a present in itself!!

We are expecting MORE snow today. I, for one, would be happy if I never saw another snow flake for a while. I like snow up to a point. However, we have ice dams and water leaked into our garden window in our kitchen this week. I am waiting for it to happen in more places. This has been a problem for a lot of people I know and it is so annoying.

In a bit of a funk this week. Not sure why because I received a couple of orders of stamping goodies. One from WPlus9, where I bought the new "Bubble Talk" and "Unforgettable" stamp sets with matching dies.

Aren't they adorable? Now that they are here, my mojo is gone and I haven't a clue what to do with them. I have a couple days off this week and hopefully I will find some inspiration.

I also received an order from My Favorite Things. Unfortunately for me, half of what I wanted to order over there is out of stock. Don't you hate when that happens? I did get the new "Diagonal Stitched Rectangle Dies" that I wanted, as well as some background stamps. I also ordered some inks and matching card stock. Unfortunately for me I am putting myself on a savings plan next month so no more orders in the near future. I need to use what I already own and be happy with that. It is so hard when all these companies release such fabulous products. It sometimes gets overwhelming.

I also won a random gift code over at Paper Smooches. I was so shocked and excited!! I am going to shop over there later today.

Now for my CASEd Valentine. For the life of me, I cannot find the Pin that I copied it from. My Pinterest card boards have gotten a little out of hand and I need to organize them a bit. Anyway, I just want to note that this is NOT my original design. If you know whose it  is, let me know so I can give credit.

The thing that I loved on the original card was the red envelopes falling from the top. I actually was excited because I had the Heidi Swapp stamp set that these belonged to. That never happens to me!

Here is how I created the card:

1. Fold a 11" by 4 1/4" piece of white card stock in half. Stamp envelopes in PTI Pure Poppy ink

2. Ink some kind of stamp that has a signature (I used an old wooden stamp I had by Stampington) in black, stamp off and then stamp onto the card front. Make sure you overlap some of the red envelopes to the left of the card front.

3. Using a post mark stamp, stamp in black on the right of card front.

4. Stamp a sentiment in the bottom right corner

5. Die cut a piece of red card stock and a piece of vellum in a rectangle. Round corners. On the red card stock, stamp sentiment. Adhere to card front as shown.

6. Die cut XOXO and red hearts from card stock. Adhere to vellum piece. Adhere vellum over the red.

This card was SO EASY and fun to make. I love how it came out. However, you can see the adhesive through the vellum. I hate that. I tried to hide it under the card stock letters but for the most part, it didn't work. The vellum would not stick. I need to figure out a better way to adhere vellum. Believe me, I have tried it all!!

I thank you for stopping by. I hope you all have a fabulous day!!

xoxo

Supplies:

InLinkz.com