Better late than never!

Okay, okay, I know I'm late in posting, but I hope you will find it was worth the wait. Here's a peek at my card for today. If you want to see the sketch, you can check it out on the UDI Blog.



I can't believe how all the little imperfections are magnified in a close up photo! Anyway, I knew as soon as I saw Carole's sketch that I wanted to do a pocket card, but I wasn't sure what to do. Yesterday I was playing with the beautiful Candy Cane Christmas DSP in the Holiday mini catalog, and I fell in love with the bling! Here's my card.

Here's the recipe:

Stamps: A Cute Christmas
Papers: Real Red, Blushing Bride, Whisper White, Candy Cane Christmas DSP
Ink: Black Staz-on
Markers: Real Red, Garden Green, Baja Breeze, Blushing Bride

Here's a photo with the insert pulled out.



Now you can head on over to Becky's blog to see her usual fabulousness! (Gotta love that girl ~ she's my daughter!)

Enjoy this beautiful fall weekend, and Happy Halloween!

Blessings,
Barbara

Missing...

I've had a busy week and a busy day. Tonight I had a Christmas card stamp-a-stack, and the last customer just left. It's too late to work on my Diva Sketch challenge, but if you stop back on Saturday afternoon, I'll have a card ready. Right now you can head over to Becky's blog to see her fabulous creation.

While you're here you might take a look at the card I did for the DIVA color challenge this week. It is posted below.

Blessings,
Barbara

UDI Color Challenge #7

I'm playing along with the Utah Divas International Color Challenge this week! Here is the color combination.



And here is my card. It uses two of my favorite things, the French Foliage set and the Lattice embossing folder. I inked the embossing folder with Crumb Cake ink before I ran it through the Big Shot.



I hope you stop back on Saturday to see the DIVA weekly sketch challenge.

Blessings,
Barbara

Welcome Christmas

Welcome to another Diva Saturday sketch challenge. You can hop over to the Diva blog to see this week's sketch. This is what I came up...



And here is a picture of the inside...



Be sure to check out Becky's blog to see what she came up with this week. I am sure it is fabulous!

Blessings,
Barbara


Recipe
Stamps: Welcome Christmas, TeaHouse BG
Papers: Very Vanilla, Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso
inks: Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso
Accessories: Sticky strip, Cherry Cobbler seam binding, lace

A Wish for Peace

I can't believe another week has flown by! This week I am enjoying the beautiful fall colors of west Michigan. I am here visiting my children and grandchildren, including a beautiful new granddaughter born on October 3. Sweet little Mabel Rose arrived 5 weeks early so she had to stay at the hospital for 11 days, but I am delighted to say she is finally home! Thank God for many blessings.

This week's Utah Divas sketch was really a challenge for me, so I took some liberties and eliminated some elements. My apologies, Carol, but I remember you said we were allowed to use the sketch as an inspiration point! Here's the sketch.

And here's my card.



Anyway, I have had Christmas cards on my mind lately. I am determined that this year I will have them made by Thanksgiving. For the past few years, my husband and I have the following conversation the day after Thanksgiving

Husband: Are the Christmas cards ready? I thought we could work on them this weekend.
Me: No, they're not. But I can go the the H******k store and pick some up if you want.
Husband: WHAT?! Send out store bought cards? But stamping is your business!!

This year I want to have them ready and see what happens. I may have to pick dear husband off of the floor!

Here's my interpretation of the sketch. You can see I eliminated some elements and moved one around. I was really happy with the end result.

Recipe
Stamps: A wish for Peace
Paper: Very Vanilla, Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso
Inks: Early Espresso
Accessories: Two-way glue pen, Dazzling Diamonds, Scallop Trim border punch, Stampin' Dimensionals

I hope you can see the beautiful shimmer on all of the snow. I'm not sure how much you will see it in the photo.


Well, that's about it for me! You can hop on over to Becky's blog to see what she came up with. For those of you who might not know, Becky is my daughter. For next week's sketch, we will be working together. What I mean is we will be together in Becky's stamping space. We really enjoy crafting together, which doesn't happen often since we live 750 miles apart. It is a real blessing to be able to spend time with my family.

Happy fall!
Barbara

P.S. Comments are always appreciated! I love to have feedback and hear what you think.

French Foliage

I can hardly believe that three weeks ago today I was in Paris and had dinner in the Eiffel Tower! This stamp set, especially the Paris postmark, really reminded me of France. I guess it goes without saying that one of my favorite sets in the new catalog is Artistic Etchings! Here's a photo of the Eiffel Tower from my trip. We were finishing a river boat cruise at dusk and the lights on the tower were just coming on. What a sight!



Anyway, on to the Diva Sketch Challenge for the week. Here's the sketch.

You will see that I rotated it this week.


I cased the color combination from a card I saw and liked. Here's the recipe.

Stamps: French Foliage
Paper: So Saffron, Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake
Inks: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, So Saffron and More Mustard
Accessories: Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder, Early Espresso ribbons, 5/8" satin and 1/8" taffeta, Big Designer Buttons (Crumb Cake)

The So Saffron paper was "smooshed" with So Saffron ink. I inked the embossing folder with Crumb Cake ink before I put it through my Big shot. (I inked the inside of the folder on the side that has the Stampin' Up logo on it, if that helps.) It really adds depth to the image. I guess it wasn't too smart of me to cover so much of it up, eh? Finally, here's a detail on the button.

I tied the 1/8" taffeta through the holes in the button. I hope you like it!

Well, on to Becky's blog to see what she came up with this week. Don't forget you can always head over to the Utah Divas International Blog to see the list of people in the sketch hop.

Have a great weekend!
Blessings,
Barbara

Just a Cup of Coffee

Here it is, the end of another week and time for the weekly Diva Sketch Challenge. So grab a cup of coffee and see what I've come up with this week! I thought the sketch was clean and simple so I decided I'd keep my card the same. Here's the sketch. Can you believe we are on week 103?

Here's my card and it uses one of my favorite color combinations, Baja Breeze and Cherry Cobbler. You may remember that was the combination I used here as well.


Here's the recipe:
Stamps: Tiny Teacup
Paper: Basic Black, Whisper White, Cherry Cobbler, Subtles Patterns DSP (Baja Breeze)
Inks: Black Staz-on, Cherry Cobbler
Accessories: Basic Black 1/8" taffeta ribbon, 1 1/4" & 1 3/8" square punches

This is one of the sweet single stamps that are featured on pages 18-20 of the Stampin' Up catalog. I separated the word hello from the teacup when I mounted the stamp and placed it on the side of the block so I could stamp the images individually. Since I'm a coffee drinker, I think it is a coffee cup! Here's a look at the inside of the card.



If you are following our blog links, you'll be heading over to Becky's blog next. Be sure to scroll down to her post of September 25 while you are there. She made herself the most adorable raincoat! Wait until you see it!

If at any time you can't find a link you can head over to the Utah Divas International blog and find all of the links.

Enjoy the weekend, and thanks so much for stopping by! And an extra thanks to those of you who take the time to leave a comment. They are greatly appreciated!

Blessings,
Barbara