Inspiration Tuesday

Happy Tuesday...and can you believe that there are only two more days to get ready for Thanksgiving! I'm cooking this year so that means time to head to the kitchen. I LOVE cooking for Thanksgiving!

Today is Beate's BIC challenge! Take a look at this beautiful picture.....

My card for today is super simple. This is the perfect week for EPLS! ...so much shopping and cooking and cleaning to do! I picked one of my PTI sets for this one....
The paper is SU. I used black Brilliance ink and then embossed the image...then I sponged it with more mustard, pumpkin pie, and really rust ink.

Be sure and check out the rest of Beate's team....

Charmaine Ikach
Danielle Lounds
Dawn McVey
Silke Ledlow
Susan Roberts

...and of course our fantabulous leader, Beate Johns ! Be sure and use the keyword BIC33 if you are uploading to SCS.

I hope you are all doing well! I will be post you soon! Have a good one!

A Flash From the Past!

Happy Inspiration Tuesday! Take a look at Beate's inspiration piece for the BIC32...

What an fun piece to work with! As I got started on this one last night I knew exactly what I wanted to do....unfortunately, my card had other ideas! Everytime I started it my ink smudged! After the 3rd time I decided to go in a different direction. I am determined to go back and do the first card but it just wasn't happening last night.

I found this piece of dsp from SU from last year....I LOVED this paper! ...and this card was born....

Rub ons...no smudges! ;) Thanks, Maren for that suggestion! Now be sure and check out the rest of Beate's team:
Charmaine Ikach
Danielle Lounds
Dawn McVey
Silke Ledlow
Susan Roberts

Hope you all have a wonderful day! I am off to hopefully catch up a bit more around here! I will post you all soon!

Inspire Me!

Happy Tuesday! This will be a quick post! I've been swamped with a function I am heading up and am so excited that it will be over Saturday! Ahhh...time to rest! :) It's been insane trying to stay up with everything in the meantime...especially when you add the sick kiddos to the mix!

Ok...not doing so great at keeping this brief am I!?

It's BIC time! Woohoo! Check out Beate's inpiration piece for this week...I love the birds and the wavy look of the photo in the background...those were the elements that got me moving. I picked up one of my newest stamps for this one! Take a look.....

This one uses one of the stamps from Unity's November KOTM. LOVE this one! The paper is from My Minds Eye. I also used so saffron, white and kraft card stock. The ribbon is so saffron twill and the metal pieces are ...ok...I have no clue! That's another one I've had forever and a day!

Thanks for stopping by! Head on over to the rest of Beate's team....

Charmaine Ikach
Danielle Lounds
Dawn McVey
Silke Ledlow
Susan Roberts

Post you all soon! :)

Beate's BIC 30

Happy Tuesday! :) I hope you are all having a great day! :) Today it's time for another fun inspiration challenge from Beate! Take a look at todays inspiration piece....

One thing popped into my instantly when I saw this! I LOVE the circles! While the colors are fabulous also, I chose a different color scheme. I am in full Christmas mode now! I'm not so sure I will end up with a 'set' of Christmas cards to send out or if I will just send a bunch of different ones. I am having such a hard time deciding! One thing is a definite...this will NOT be this years mass produced card! Someone will get it...but only ONE person! LOL

Here's my card for this week...

I went only with the circles. The reason this is actually a bit of a bear...the stickles and liquid pearls are a bit temperamental! This is actually the third card...the first two were both ruined when either my liquid pearls or stickles spit out to much goo...or because I accidentally shut the card before it was dry! ...and to think!...it looks so EPLS! (easy peasy lemon squeezy)

Here's one of the inside...I took the circles all the way down on the bottom under the sentiment...

...and for some reason it seems like this picture loaded REALLY big! Sorry...I am actually typing this Monday night and am just to pooped to change it!

So dash on over to the rest of Beate's team and see what they came up with...

Charmaine Ikach
Danielle Lounds
Dawn McVey
Silke Ledlow
Susan Roberts

And by the time you read this...I will be off to a hair appointment...a MUCH needed hair appointment! Hope you all have a fabulous day!

I will post you soon! :)

Ever So Grateful

Happy Inspiration Tuesday! You all know how much I LOVE Beate's Inspiration challenge (#29)! It's one of my favorites! This weeks challenge is AMAZING! Take a look at the piece that Beate chose for us....

How much do I love the colors and 'cleaness' of this picture. Everything is wonderful! I actually wasn't quite sure what direction I wanted to take for this one. I didn't want to lose anything! ;) So I pulled out some kraft, some twine, and my Gratitude=Joy stamp from Unity...to create this....


Simple and clean. My favorite!

Be sure and check out the rest of Beate's team....

Charmaine Ikach
Danielle Lounds
Dawn McVey
Silke Ledlow
Susan Roberts

Hope you are all doing well! I'm off to try and get caught up! Yesterday was a crazy day! Two of my boys were sick...I'm actually typing this Monday night...hoping that tomorrow morning by the time you all read this everyone will be well again! If not...I won't be catching up on anything! :) Just still giving a ton of hugs and running around getting this and that for the boys!

Post you all soon!

Beate's BIC #28

It's that time of week! Time to be inspired and Beate has the coolest piece for us! For this, BIC28, we have this.....


...for some reason this screamed Halloween to me! LOL! I am not sure if it's the colors or just the time of year. Anyway, this is what I did.....


This is seriously the quickest card ever! I made the circles with my Nesties....just took a piece of black card stock and 'nested' them on it and cut...EPLS. The paper is My Minds Eye. The stamp is from Unity's Unlucky 13...one of my current favs... I put this one together in about 15 minutes while getting the boys ready for school. Last night was a late one. Evan had the championship game for his football team. I am happy to report that his team won! Woohoo! We were out so late...for us! ;) I will have to share a photo later as I am barely getting this one up!


That's it for me. Be sure and check out the rest of Beate's team...
Charmaine Ikach
Danielle Lounds
Dawn McVey
Silke Ledlow


I hope you are all having a great day! I will post you soon! :)

Let's Get Inspired!

It's time for Beate's BIC26 weekly challenge! This weeks challenge is so clean and calm and crisp. I love this one. It comes to you straight from the Pottery Barn catalog....

When I first looked at this one I was drawn to the curtains in the background. I love the blue...isn't that Pacific Blue? ;)...and the vanilla together and it looks like a beautiful window in between. I couldn't take my eyes off of that. When I started my card, however, I was just not able to 'feel' it. How funny is that! Whatever! lol!

Anyway, I opted to be inspired by the focal point. The couch. Here's the direction I took with this challenge....

I have so been wanting to use this paper and when I saw it this morning I thought it was perfect! I used one of my Unity sentiments. This one is from the kit Something Within..it's one of my all time fav's! The paper is from a kit that I got from Studio Calico...thank you AJ for the new addiction! The flowers are Making Memories.

That's it for me. I am off to get caught up on some stuff around here...hopefully will be back for more stamping today. Be sure and check out the rest of Beate's team...

Charmaine Ikach
Danielle Lounds
Dawn McVey
Silke Ledlow
Susan Roberts

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you all have a wonderful day! :)

Post you soon!

Taking It Literally

Well it's one of my favorite times of the week. Time for another inspiration challenge from Beate...if you play along and upload to SCS be sure and use the keyword BIC25. How's this for a BEAUTIFUL piece to work with....

This piece speaks to me! I LOVE it. Everything about it in fact! So much so, that I just ran with it. I took it literally. Here's the card I created without changing much of anything about the original....

The stamps: SU's Eastern Blooms and Unity's KOTM. The paper is Kraft, Basic Grey, Sweet Blush, Kiwi Kiss, and Vanilla. The ink is black. The ribbon is an organdy silver. I also used liquid pearls for the centers of the flowers. EPLS...well, once you cut all of the paper pieces and stick 'em on!

Be sure and check out the rest of the team to see their take on the inspiration piece.

Charmaine Ikach
Danielle Lounds
Dawn McVey
Silke Ledlow
Susan Roberts

I'm off to get busy with the things of the day! Hope you are all having a good one! I will post you all soon! :)

Inspiration Time!

It's time for another fun inspiration challenge brought to you by the ever so fabulous Beate! This weeks inspiration piece reminded me of fall. I think it's the colors and the leaves on the glasses. Check this out....

I was in luck because I had the perfect stamp for the fall feeling I was going for. This is from Unity. It's called Autumn Blessings. The paper is SU.

Be sure and check out the rest of the BIC team:

Charmaine Ikach
Danielle Lounds
Dawn McVey
Silke Ledlow
Susan Roberts

That's it for me. Today will be spent trying to catch up around the house. It's in total chaos! Tonight I stamp! Somehow it feels like I haven't done much of that lately. How crazy does that sound! Everything has been so rushed in the last few days. I think that's why I feel that way.

I hope you all have a wonderful day! I look forward to posting you soon! :)

A Little Unity For A Little Inspiration

Inspiration challenge are my FAVORITE! I know I've said this before but...sorry...I'm going to say it again!...you cannot make a mistake with an inspiration piece! Anything from the piece can inspire. Anything! Color, layout, over all theme...anything! I really love when I can just run with something and go wherever my 'mood' takes me.

...ooo...that's a little scary! LOL....

Todays inspiration piece from Beate for this BIC23, is so clean and crisp but with a touch of whimsy to me. Here's the piece.....

I love the 'white' space and the circles on the rug...the colors...the little tree in the background...so as I was looking at it, I remembered that I had this new little something from Unity...I ordered it a couple of weeks ago but hadn't had a chance to ink it up. I added a little sentiment...some fun ribbon and here you go.....

Simple, right??? Here's the deets....The stamps are both from Unity. The sentiment is from Gratitude = Joy, the circles in the bottom corner is a single called Hullabaloo. I stamped the image in Basic Gray and colored them with my Copic markers. Since I didn't have a lot of coloring I didn't have a problem with 'bleeding' from the markers. This is so not the 'right' ink to use for these markers! :) Then I cut a sheet of vellum to the same size as the card and glued it down with my vellum tape...that stuff really works! I used my ribbon from SU...it's Kiwi Kiss.

That's it! EPLS! I so love EPLS! Be sure and check out the rest of Beate's team...

Charmaine Ikach
Danielle Lounds
Dawn McVey
Silke Ledlow
Susan Roberts

Hope you are all having a great morning! I'm off to check out the rest of the team and then just try and clean up around here! What a mess my house is!

Have a wonderful day! :)

BIC 22!

Wowza, can you believe it's Tuesday already! I am so excited to be trudging through this week! I have stuff this week! Oh, I cannot tell you! It will be a wild ride for me this week! I just keep crossing stuff off of my list...that seems to help me get through it!



So enough of me and my issues! ;) How about a super COOL inspiration piece from Beate (It's BIC 22)! This weeks piece is truly the coolest piece ever! Here's the piece from a Martha Stewart ad...


Isn't this the calmest, coolest piece! It just seems so serene to me. I LOVE the cool blues with the splash of brown and green. ....All the colors I chose to pick up for my sample. I used Stampin' Up!'s Eastern Blooms for this one because well, it's sitting on my desk completely uninked and because it seemed to fit. Here's my card....

Two things! First, I picked up a couple of OTT lamps at Joanns yesterday. I was hearing some really great things about them and since I had a couple of 40% off coupons I couldn't pass them up! But that leads me to the second!...I am obviously tweaking the photos again! Sorry if it's to muddy. I always ask my sister but she was out at the time I was scheduling the post. I will check with her tomorrow...or today for all of the people that are actually reading this! :)

Ok...enough of my ramble! Be sure and check out the rest of Beate's team....
Charmaine Ikach
Danielle Lounds
Dawn McVey
Silke Ledlow
Susan Roberts

...now I am off to hopefully get a walk in. I really need to start exercising again! I still have yet to make that part of my daily routine. With all of the junk I am eating lately I better get busy! I so love the sweets!

Hope you are all having a wonderful morning and I will post you all soon!

....special thanks to Lisa! She came by and gave me a few pointers on my new lights. This is actually a picture she took while testing it out. She ROCKS! :)

Beate's BIC! ....& WSC!

Happy Tuesday! I'm so ready for today! It was most certainly a wonderful weekend! I LOVE long weekends! ...but I am also ready for the boys to head back to school! I need to catch up around here and that never happens when everyone is home!

Well, Tuesday here means it's time for Beate's BIC challenge...she is up to number 21! Check out this weeks inspiration piece....

I love this piece! Well, I decided that since I hadn't been able to play with one of Beate's WSC in such a long while I would combine it with this weeks BIC challenge. Here's my card....trying to incorporate both....

What really stood out to me was the beauty of the curtains and the striking color of the flowers and table. I LOVE it all. I went with a neutral base to reflect the curtains and pulled a flower...this one is from Unity's KOTM from August...I tied the colors of all of my favorite elements into the flower.

Supplies: So Saffron Poly Twill SU, Unity Stamp Co. August KOTM, PTI sentiment, Vanilla cs PTI, scallop border punch SU

That's it for me...be sure and check out the rest of Beate's team for some great samples....

Charmaine Ikach
Danielle Lounds
Dawn McVey
Silke Ledlow
Susan Roberts

Hope you all have a wonderful day! :)

Are You Feeling It?

Well, by that I mean my interpretation of Beate's wonderful inspiration challenge..today is BIC20 if you are uploading at SCS. I really love this piece. Check it out....

I really love this. I knew I wanted to use some folliage and the burgandy mat reminded me of fall...and since I just got this paper and stamp set from Papertrey...I went in this direction....

So what will move you with this piece? I can't wait to see all of the projects. Inspiration challenges truly are a favorite of mine. I love how there are so many things that might get you going.

Be sure and check out the rest of Beate's team for some more takes on this piece....

Charmaine Ikach
Danielle Lounds
Dawn McVey
Silke Ledlow
Susan Roberts

Hope you are all having a great day! I actually made a few of these as I needed some thank yous for different people today. I am off to send these. Clean my house....the filth! Ugh! Laundry....You know...all of that fun stuff that really gets your creative juices flowing!

I WISH! My house would be the cleanest on the block if that were the case!

Have a great day! :)

She's BACK!

Woohoo! How excited am I! One of my favorite blogging friends is back! You all know how much I love Beate! :) Well, she's back to blogging! I so love her creative genious!

Today she has a great inspiration piece for us. Take a look at this....
I love this. Love the clean lines...LOVE the colors....In all honesty, I wasn't sure what to run with. I went for the colors and the lines! You know what's so great about these colors??? They look just like some of the new SU In-colors. I used Grey, Basic Black and my new Riding hood red, Kiwi kiss and Baja breeze for this one as well as my KOTM from Unity and came up with this....

Fun! LOVE this inspiration challenge! :) Be sure and check out the rest of the team....Charmaine, Danielle, Dawn, Silke, and Susan. How great is it to type this again! I have really missed these challenges!

Don't forget that if you get a chance to play, link your card or project at Beate's blog. If you are uploading at SCS be sure and enter the keywords BIC19.

Hope you are all having a great morning! I will post you soon! :)

Inspiration Tuesday

I'm so excited for another Be Inspired Challenge from Beate! I couldn't wait to play with this inspiration piece. Take a look at this....

Oh my GOODNESS! How pretty...and yummy...does this look! Oh to be Martha! ;) I will share with you guys that this cake inspired me to hit my favorite bakery for some yummy cupcakes. I figured they would help to get my creative juices flowing! ...they definitely tasted delish!

Here's what I came up with for this challenge (BIC18)...

Blue and red! This is such a favorite color combo of mine! I LOVE them together! Be sure and check out the rest of Beate's team...Charmaine, Danielle, Dawn, Silke, and Susan. I can't wait to see what you guys do with this piece!

Hope you all have a wonderful day! Post you soon!

It's Inspiration Tuesday!

Yay for Beate! She has another super fun inspiration challenge (BIC17) for us today! It's so simple and yet so ...inspiring... yeah, I know...really creative wording! ;) Here's the piece for today....

I love this! I used one of my new Unity Stamps for this one (Flirty Flowers)...you know how I am with new stamps...I gotta use the heck out of 'em! ;) Here's my take on the challenge....

I went with a black background and white front and then added some black stitching. I decided to throw in a splash of yellow...but then I saw my Summer Sunrise ribbon from Papertrey and decided a bit of orange would be better!

And that's it! Be sure and check out the rest of Beate's team...Charmaine, Danielle, Dawn, Silke, and Susan...for some more eye candy!

Hope you are all doing well and that you have a wonderful Tuesday! Ours is a wet one and it's round two of the stomach thing...for Carter anyway! Will this ever end! ;) What a way to start the summer! :)

Oh What A Night...

Wow! Talk about a night last night! Have you ever had one of those moments when every idea sort of, well, skunks? That was me last night.

It's Tuesday! Woohooo! Time for another fun inspiration challenge from Beate! The inspiration piece is so very pretty and serene....This is from a Martha Stewart ad...I think... I love the colors...I love the crispness of everything! It's just so soft and serene!

So last night I start to work on my card for this and nothing is working! Here's my card...

I wanted to use the colors from the picture....blue and white with a splash of something. I love the wall hanging on the very right side of the inspiration piece...that's where I picked up the scallop on the side of my card. First I had a black 'frame' for it. That was to much. Then I paper pierced the scallops...not enough...I though about adding gems...to blingy...is that even possible! Then I opted for the pearls. Ahhh....love the pearls.

My new Fresh Cuts stamp set arrived yesterday and I wanted to use it...couldn't wait! Especially since mounting required only peeling the backing off and sticking it to the wood! Gotta love those die cuts! I stamped it in black on the other side and then added the sentiment. Then I thought 'I need a ribbon'....never found a place that it worked. It just made everything seem to busy. So then I pulled out my liquid pearls and added some red to the berries on the flowers and there you go.

Simple and Serene.

Now let's head over to the rest of Beate's team to see what they came up with for the BIC#16....Charmaine, Danielle, Dawn, Silke, and Susan....then I will be off to see what you guys come up with. I really love seeing all of the different directions everyone goes with these! It's so much fun!

I hope you all have a wonderful day! It's a rainy one here but it's the last day of school...and a half day at that! I was hoping to take the boys for ice cream but who wants to sit outside for that! Guess we may actually have to head to an indoor place instead.

Yay for summer! Post you soon! :)

One Scrappy Card

Hey! It's Tuesday and that means it's time for another super fun inspiration challenge from Beate...BIC15. I really love these challenges. I love how there are so many things that can get your creative juices flowing.

Here's this weeks inspiration piece taken from a JCrew ad....This is such a pretty dress. It seems so fun and festive but the colors seem so calm to me. I love the splash of orange in the midst of the grey, blue and greens. I chose to work with the colors from this piece and see where they took me.

Where was that you ask? Ok...I'll ask for you...right to my scrap paper pile!....

Oh, I finally figured out how to turn the flash off on my camera. Just a little tidbit of info. I used some of my scraps to make this card. I would be impressed if the pile of scraps wasn't as big as it is and if I did this on more of a regular basis! I either need to chuck them or strive to use them more often!

Well that's it for me. Be sure and check out the rest of Beate's team. They are always making the cutest cards! Charmaine, Danielle, Silke, Susan...Dawn is still on vacation...lucky girl! Hope she's having a great time!

I hope you all have a fantabulous day! I'm going to be playing catch up around here. You would think that since we were home for this holiday weekend there wouldn't be much to do. Somehow I am really behind on everything! I'm hoping that everyone cooperates and then I will be all caught up!

Take care and I will post you soon! :)