I was a Cut Above!

I got a nice surprise the other day and so busy (see this post) that I didn't get around to posting about it.  My card was chosen as a Cut Above on the Paper Players for last week.

Thanks so much to LeAnne for this honor!

We've been busy!

I've mentioned a time or two that my craft room has been torn up while we were doing some remodeling.  My husband has been putting down ceramic tile and is pretty much finished with that. Just a few little touch ups on the grout and the space right at the foot of the steps is all that is left to do in that room. He took a break and we went to IKEA in Pittsburg last Sunday.  These pics show what we got there!

These beautiful shelf units replace folding tables and other odd storage items along the wall below my 19" pegboard.  Looks so much neater!

My current stamp sets are stored here in DVD holders and my few wooden sets are to the left of them.

Here in the middle section is my cutting and scoring center.

And for right now my Big Shot is on the left section.  We are planning another trip to IKEA soon and then I will have my Big Shot and all the items that go with it in another place.  Also planning some storage below the big window that is to the left of this wall.  I'll show more pics as we go along.  I am so lucky that my husband is so handy and is interested in making my crafting area so nice!

Thanks for stopping by!
Carol

NAC4 & SQSC 49

I used the Stamping Queens sketch and the color combo from Nacho Average Challenges for my card today.  I used some dazzling details on the butterfly wings and black rhinestone for the body.  Card recipe is below:

Stamps:  Papillon Potpourri, Petite Pairs
Paper:  Certainly celery, pirouette pink, so saffron
Ink:  basic black
Extras:  certainly celery ribbon (retired), dazzling details, dots embossing folder, rhinestones colored black with sharpie.

Thanks for looking!
Carol

Paper Players #105

I needed a masculine birthday card today and I also felt like doing some watercoloring.  The sketch from Paper Players worked out well for me.

Countryside has some really nice images for masculine cards.  There is a sneak peek here from the new Holiday catalog that comes out Aug. 1. Check out that embossing on the midnight muse panel.  The dsp is Comfort Cafe and the sentiment comes from Petite Pairs.

Holiday Catalog Sneak Peek

Christmas in July!  Scentsational Season is one of the sets available in the new Holiday catalog that begins Aug. 1.  The sentiment is from More Merry Messages.  It is available now in the annual catalog.  I used some new scented embossing powder on the steam rising from the cup.  It smells so good!  My ribbon is retired because I don't have any new ribbon in early espresso yet.  The 1/4" stitched grosgrain would work great.  Now for the best part--there are new framelits for each of the images in the set!  But silly me forgot that for a little bit when I was making my card and I cut my cup out by hand.  Won't do that again, I hope!

In other news, Stampin' Up announced that the new MDS2 will be available for download on Aug. 1.  There will be more updates coming out later that can be downloaded as they are available.  I am very excited for MDS2!  I will soon have a link on my side bar for my brand new Stampin' Up website so  you will be able to order it for yourself and see how much fun digital scrapbooking is!  And you can do lots of other things with MDS2 besides scrapbooking.

Thanks for stopping by!
Carol

Nacho Average Challenge #3

I used the sketch from Nacho Average Challenge for this birthday card that I made for my son-in-law.  Happy Birthday, Shawn!  I hadn't even put these stamps from Up Up & Away together yet.  Shame on me!  I hope Shawn likes the card.

I just realized when I copied and pasted the sketch here that the sketch has ribbon on it.  Oops!  But it wouldn't have worked on this card anyway. My sentiment will have to do instead.  Sorry!

Thanks for stopping by!
Carol

Freshly Made 43, CCMC210 and CCMC-NC3

Whooee!  This card takes care of 3 challenges.  I don't do that very often.  You can find the sketch at Freshly Made.  The colors come from Create with Connie & Mary and the challenge at the subscriber only site is to use some of the new Sizzix items in the new catty.  I have to say this color combo was a bit of a challenge to me.  I tried to get some pool party in there but didn't like the way it looked so decided to just let my pool party ink do the trick.  I did highlight some of the stamped image with my blender brush and some island indigo ink.  I used the new fancy fan embossing folder and the finishing touches edgelits.  My stamped image comes from the World Treasures set.  I just love it!

Thanks for stopping by!
Carol