An Old Prettie Challenge

Today I'm sharing another older card. My stamping time lately has been nonexistent so for now I'll have to try to bedazzle you with some old cards. Its funny, I haven't been stamping for very long, but I really think I can already see an improvement from my earlier attempts!:-) This card I'm showing you was done for a challenge I issued the Prettie Girls. When I first showed Christie the sketch for our Simply Special stamp, I told her there was much more I planned on doing to it. But she loved it the way it was, and she was definitely right. The sentiment she came up for it is beautiful and I think this has become one of my favorite stamps of Paper Pretties to use. Especially to color!:-) But I still wanted to see what it would look like if I added more to it. So I gave the Prettie girls the challenge of hand drawing on their own card. But than I thought that might be a little mean because I know that most people aren't comfortable drawing, although I honestly think that anyone can draw, it just depends on how much you actually like doing it. So I changed the challenge to do SOMETHING by hand, either drawing, writing or doodling! This is what I came up with. I like how it came out, but I think if I were to do it again I would add a butterfly or two in there:-) The image is so big there wasn't much room for embellishments so I left it kind of plain. Looking at it now though, I think I would have tried to add some brads or something!



I'm hoping to get some stamping time in tonight. I better, I still have to finish the shaker card challenge for Wednesday! Have a wonderful day and thanks so much for stopping by!

Montana

This card I'm showing today is a card I made for my grandparents. We had a family reunion at their cabin in Montana over the Fourth of July. Montana is an absolutely beautiful place, so green and so much of it just left untouched. My brother saw a black bear while going for a walk in the morning! We saw a bunch of deer, and some antelope and elk as well.







Here are a couple of pictures I took of the property that is surrounding my grandparents, isn't it amazing? And I had to throw in a picture of my niece, cuteness herself:-) She was standing cautiously back protecting her 'special puppy' while we were petting the neighbors horses. Her name is Madeline Sophia, and yes, I named Sophia after her!:-) It was so nice to be there and to just completely relax. There is no cell phone reception and no internet connection, it was bliss!lol I sent this card with Howdy Girlfriend Sophia on it to them to say thank you for letting us all take over their cabin for a couple of weeks. I think this image couldn't have been more perfect for them. I paper pieced Sophia's bandana and skirt with some paper I bought from Target and for the denim part of the skirt, I scanned in a pair of REALLY old jeans and printed it out and used it for my dp! I really like the effect of it:-) Am heading to a cousin's wedding today and have a bunch of cleaning to do before we take off, hope you all have a fun and relaxing weekend!

Today has been one of those busy, catch up days! You know those days where no matter what you get done it feels like you have a million more to do? A few people asked about the dp I used on my photo album in the last entry. It was from a paper pad I bought made by the domestic goddess herself, Martha Stewart. It's called Botanical Classics and I bought it at WalMart! We don't have WalMart in SF, so when I went with my mom last time I was visiting home, I was shocked at how big there craft section is! They've got great stuff, will definitely be checking back there when I get a chance. I bought this pad thinking its the exact colors for my cousins wedding and would be perfect for a card for her and her fiance, but I think I've used it for every project I've done lately. Can't seem to get enough of it! :-) I even used a little in this card I made for my parents. Danielle made the greatest sketch over at Paper Pretties and I finally got to use it. I will definitely be using it again!



This Sophia image is one of my favorites. Sometimes a drawing can be really hard and frustrating. You have to keep reworking it to get the mood and feeling across that you're trying to portray. And sometimes it's like it just flows out of the pencil. This image was definitely one of those. It must be because of my love for fall:-) Hope you all are having a fabulous day, and thanks for stopping by!

Mini Album Challenge

Two weeks ago I gave the prettie girls the challenge of making a mini album. I love making albums and the little tiny albums that I saw on SCS were so adorable I had to come up with an excuse to make my own:-) It took me awhile to decide which tutorial to pick from, but I finally decided to do the Pull Out Scrapbook. My album is going to Danielle and since Danielle had a birthday not too long ago, I decided to make something she could put her pics of the big 3-0 in:-)



I chose the image from Soakin' Up The Sun because I think that is definitely the way I would want to spend my bday if it was in the summer. The sentiment I made in Illustrator and printed out. I knew I had to use blue because if you've been to Danielle's blog, you know she likes blue!:-)



Here is a pic of the inside. I have to say, I think it came out pretty cute and I can't wait to make another one. They make the perfect little gifts! Make sure to go check out the amazing projects the Prettie Team did, they always come up with something amazing to inspire me! Danielle challenged us last week to do a shaker card which I've never done before. It sounds like fun though, can't wait to try it:-)

A VERY Late Prettie Challenge

I finally got around to doing the Prettie challenge that Jessie issued us last week, to have at least three embellishments on a card. The card I had started for it I decided not to use because I just couldn't figure out how to put another embellishment on it. But than I remembered this card of Charmaine's that I always loved and wanted to try someday. So this is what I came up with.



And if you count the liquid pearls I used on Sophia's necklace, that's FOUR embellishments on this card! How about that, huh? The paper piercing, ribbon and crystal on Sophia's flower are the other three. Now I have to ask you ladies, can anyone explain to me what CASEing is? I know that your taking a card that someone made and making it your own kind of, but are there certain rules and what does CASEing stand for? And what I've done with Charmaine's card, is this considered CASEing? If someone could explain all of this to this poor newbie I would much appreciate it!:-)

Thank you for all your sweet comments about Laddu's dog, Portia. It looks like she actually might be ok for awhile. She had basically lost control of her back legs and could not walk at all. It was so sad to see her just laying there in pain like that. But the doctor gave her two shots of cortisone and a couple days later she started walking around on her own! She kind of walks like a drunk dog, but at least she's moving! Its so good to see her her happy self again. The vet was really happy with her progress, so we'll just have to see how she does from here.

The engagement party was really fun. I met a lot of his family for the first time and everyone was really great, so that was a big relief!:-) Here are a few pics for those that are interested.



This is me and one of my best friends Neelum. We met in the 4th grade and have stayed friends ever since:-)



This is a pic of my parents and 'little' brother after they had finished their part in the ceremony. As you can see from Laddu's face he's really enjoying all of this;-)



This is after the chinni (I'm sure I just butchered the spelling on that) was put on me.



And here we are with all my future in laws:-)

I also wanted to send out a huge congratulations to Jessie for being chosen Featured Stamper on SCS! I'm still learning what SCS is all about, but I do know this is a huge honor! Congrats Jessie! I'll be back tomorrow with the challenge that I gave the prettie girls, to make a mini album!

Very Late Prettie Challenge

Here it is, 10 minutes until Thursday and my prettie Wednesday card is still not finished:-( I've decided this is not my fault, but Jessie's for giving me such a hard challenge!;-) The card is pretty much done, I just have to figure out one more embellishment to stick on there since the challenge was to include three different kinds. My limit seems to be two. But I'll figure it out! I honestly haven't had much time to concentrate on it too much. Laddu's, my fiance, dog got really sick this week and it looks like they may have to put her down:-( He's pretty upset about it and we've been making a lot of trips back and forth from his parents. With all the driving, trying to get ready for the engagement party and trying to get some illustration work done, card making pretty much got put on the back burner this week. I'm leaving early in the morning tomorrow to help with the last minute things for the party and will be back Sunday afternoon. I'm nervous about being the center of attention around so many people, but I'm very excited about the gorgeous sari I get to wear. One of the best things about marrying into the indian culture is the beautiful clothes!;-)

So I will leave you with this card I made for my brother and his wife last week for the anniversary. I used the stamp from our Sealed With A Kiss set and used the colors that were used in their wedding. I'll be back Sunday with my three embellishment card and probably a few pictures from the party. Hope you all have a wonderful rest of the week and weekend!

Going Dotty Challenge

Danielle over at Paper Pretties has been giving us some great challenges every week. I love doing challenges, I feel like it gives me a starting point:-) This card I'm showing you is for the one from last week, to use polka dots. I thought this one be a fun one to try out and also a good excuse to use Paper Pretties Sassy Circles set. I'm a little late to enter, but I guess better late than never!:-) This card is going to my ex roommate who moved back home to Norway a few months ago. I definitely miss all the girl talk we used to do:-( I love being with Laddu, but when it comes to gossip and what shoes go with what, he's not much use;-)
I used brighter colors than I normally do and had a lot of fun with it. I think I may have to try these colors more often.



Danielle gave a sketch challenge for this week. I LOVE the sketch, and I've seen some beautiful cards made with it already! I'm definitely going to have to find some time this week to try it out:-) Hope everyone is having a good Monday!

Just a quick post before we head off to visit Laddu's parents. I wanted to show you a guest book I made for Laddu's mom, I think it turned out really pretty! Laddu's parents are throwing an engagment party for us/anniversary party for Laddu's brother and wife. And if you know anything about the indian culture, they don't do little dinner parties, they go BIG! For this party there is going to be probably around 200-250 people! Crazy, huh? Laddu's mom mentioned awhile ago wanting to get a guest book and I thought that could be an area where I could do something since she's been doing all of the planning and decorating so far. A couple of christmas' ago I made them a photo album using maroon and gold satin. I sewed a pattern onto the maroon with gold thread and sequins. It turned out beautiful, but took awhile to do! I didn't have much time this time so I used the left over fabric I had from that project, used the heart background stamp from Sealed With A Kiss, stamped all over the maroon fabric with gold ink and came up with this:-) I really like the result and am excited about giving it to her! Better run, hope you all have a good weekend!

Green and White card challenge

This card challenge was issued by Christie to do a card all in green and white. She gave us this gorgeous picture to inspire us. I thought that I definitely wanted to do something floral after seeing that picture, but Paper Pretties hasn't released much in the way of floral stamps yet. Than I remembered the little rose bouquet I did in the Sealed With a Kiss set! So I stamped the roses a bunch of times, cut them out, glued them together and made a big bouquet of roses!:-) Than I wanted a stripey green paper to use, but didn't have any. So I went into Illustrator and made my own! I like the way it came out, but I don't think I'll be doing that again, my hand was looking a little clawish after all that cutting!:-P This card will be going to Jillian as soon as I get her new address. I still have some more drawing to finish tonight, so it's back to work for me. Until tomorrow!

3x3 challenge card

It looks like I'm a little late getting my challenge card up, most of the other Prettie girls got theirs up last night or this morning! Oh well, no one ever accused me of being punctual:-)



This challenge was issued by Jodi to make a 3x3 card, and I have to say, it was so much fun! I love how easy it came together. I've had this color combo in my head for the last week for some reason and I've been trying to think of a card to use our little bird from Rainy Day Friends on, so I just combined everything I've been wanting to do and came up with this!:-) I think I will definitely be making more 3x3 cards in the future, I love how small and cute they are. Thanks Jodi for a great challenge!

Now it is my turn to give the challenge, heheheee (that's my evil laugh incase you can't tell). A couple of weeks ago I was clicking around on SplitcoastStampers and discovered their resource page! Why have I not heard about it before? I can't believe all of the fantastic ideas you can get from it! I spent at least an hour just going through all of them and looking at the examples people have made. Ever since than I've been dying to try one of their mini album tutorials. They have three or four to choose from, and I can't make up my mind which one to do! So my challenge to you is to pick one of the mini album tutorials on Splitcoast and make one. I'm hoping this way every one will do something different and I'll get even more ideas;-) Hope you guys enjoy the challenge!

So next week we'll be doing Jessie's challenge to use at least three embellishments (I'm a little scared of this one) and the following week will be my mini album challenge:-)

Happy Wednesday to you all, 'see' you tomorrow!

Acetate Card Challenge

Hope you all had a good weekend! I realize that it is Tuesday and not Monday, but one of the perks of being a free lancer is that you pretty much get to set your own schedule. So since my weekend was Sunday and Monday, today feels like Monday to me:-) Carmel was beautiful and it looks like we've found the spot for our reception. I still have a few more questions to ask the owner before we sign anything, but the place looks really cute and cozy, exactly what we wanted:-) And now for the challenge card I will be showing you today!



This challenge was made by Christie, our Prettie Mama:-), to make an acetate card. Being the ignorant newbie that I am, I of course had to call and ask her what in the world is acetate? When she told me all it was was those plastic sheets you use for an overhead projector I felt a little stupid. But that's one of the things I really like about stamping. A lot of the techniques that you see people use are actually pretty simple once you find out how it was done. For this card I used our set Rainy Day Friends. It's the only time I've been able to use it so far even though it's one of my favorite Sophia's! I stamped her little dog, Daisy, with her inside the card and stamped the rain drops on the acetate window. Here is the inside and a close up of the image.




Both Christie and I have little fluffy dogs so we decided Sophia's dog would be a combination of both of ours. Here is a picture of my little baby.



His name is Benji. He's very sweet to those he likes, but if not, watch out!;-) His little high pitch bark would scare anyone away! I never thought I would have a little dog, I always liked bigger dogs. But when I saw his little face, I couldn't resist:-)

I'll be back tomorrow to post the challenge that Jodi gave us, to make a 3x3 card. I've never made one of those, so it should be interesting;-) It's also my turn to post my challenge to all of the Prettie Girls, hope they like it!

Prettie Baby Card Challenge

This will just be a short post today since my fiance and I are heading over to Carmel to spend the night and will be back tomorrow. The main reason we are going is because Carmel is where we've decided to have our american wedding and we are going to go look at some possible reception places!:-) The reason I say american wedding is because my fiance, Laddu, is indian. So we will be having an indian wedding and an american wedding. People keep telling me what a lucky girl I am to have two weddings, I'm just glad I have Laddu's mom to plan the indian one, I would not have a clue where to start! I'm sure I'll be writing more about our upcoming wedding(s) but for now, here is the card!



Jana gave us this challenge to make a baby card using Paper Prettie stamps. The problem, or I guess you would say the challenge, is that Paper Prettie doesn't have any baby stamps! Yet! I should say;-) So I had no idea what to do for this one, but than I thought, hey I'm an illustrator! I'll just make a baby stamp! Some may call that cheating, I call it being resourceful:-) The best part about this card is that it's going to Charmaine who absolutely loves ladybugs. Hopefully she'll love this card! Thanks for stopping by, and if I'm not here tomorrow to post I'll be back for sure on Tuesday:-)

Paper Pretties New Cutie Pie

Last night was Paper Pretties release party for four of our new stamps! I only got to stay for about an hour, but it was so much fun chatting with all the girls and seeing all of the amazing creations the 'prettie people', as Julie calls them;-), were coming up with for the challenges that Charmaine was giving! I only got to try the first one which was to make a card that was all black and white with just one little splash of color for your pop. This is the card I came up with, my little gothic Sophia, lol!



Really, there were some amazing cards there though. If you haven't checked it out yet, you should go over to the Paper Pretties Gallery and look under Pretties Pajama Parties.

Christie also announced who won the Cutie Pie contest! The Cutie Pie contest is something that Paper Pretties does before every release party. Anyone who would like to enter sends a card to Christie that they made from their Paper Prettie stamps. Christie announces the winner at the release party and that lucky person wins all of the sets being released that night! Pretty good deal, huh? The winner last night was Stephanie Hargis! Her gorgeous card is displayed on the home page of Paper Pretties for you all to see.

Stephanie has been making some really fantastic cards with our stamps lately, its so much fun to check the gallery and see more of her beautiful cards!

I've got a lot of drawing to finish today and I'm hoping to be able to fit a walk into this gorgeous day here in San Francisco, so I better be off. I'll see you tomorrow to show you some more challenge cards!

Bookmark Challenge

I'm back today to show you another Prettie Challenge. This one was issued by the amazing Charmaine Ikach and it was to do a bookmark. I thought it would be a great way to showcase all of the Sophias that we've done so far. This was my first try at doing scalloped circles, some came out pretty well but others not so much!:-) It is driving me crazy that the scallops on the circles don't completely line up, but what can you do. I have to ask, how do you ladies get those perfect scalloped circles? Is there a machine that does that or a special pair of scissors? Whatever it is I'm starting to feel as if I need it! Here is a picture of the front of the bookmark with a little bow as well as the back.




This bookmark will be on its way to Jana as soon as she moves into her new house in San Jose, just an hour from me!:-D I'm so hoping she'll let me do some real life stamping with her and teach me a few tricks;-)

I'm also going to show you the mother's day cards I did.





You may be wondering, why is she showing me mother's day cards now? I love the way they turned out if I do say so myself
:-), so I have to share them with somebody! I used the stamp we did awhile back called Simply Special. I thought it would be perfect for my mother's day cards. I love coloring this image. It is just so much fun to mix the prismacolors and make it look more like a painting. The two matching ones were done for my grandmothers and the long one was made for my mom. The grandmother cards are made from a sketch I found on Jen Del Muro's blog (I love her layouts!) and my mom's card was inspired by a sketch I found on Beate's blog.

Paper Pretties is releasing four more of our stamps tonight. I'm so excited about these stamps, in my opinion they are some of the cutest we've done so far and I can't wait to see what others think! Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed my cards:-)