Create with Connie and Mary & Simply Stamping Challenges {To My Friend}

This is my second post for the day, if you are looking for the Merry Monday Challenge, please click here.

Good morning blogging friends! I was up entirely too late last night, my mind racing with teaching ideas for the year! This time of year, no teacher can sleep! LOL! So I went in search of some challenges to play and came across a delightful new challenge called Simply Stamping and the always fabulous Create with Connie and Mary Challenge! So I went to work! I loved the pretty colours at Simply Stamping and the CCMC Sketch was fabulous, I decided to flip it up to make a vertical card.

My card is very clean! I used the Stripes Embossing Folder (my fav) for the background of Very Vanilla! The flowers come from my absolute favourite new set called Summer Silhouettes. It is such a pretty set! I inked up my butterfly in Calypso Coral and the flowers use Pretty in Pink and Old Olive. I couldn't resist adding some bling with my gemstones...love those!!! Thank you to both teams for wonderful inspiration!!

{Supplies Used}

Stamps: Summer Silhouettes, Friendly Phrases, Papillon Potpourri

Inks: Calypso Coral, Pretty in Pink and Old Olive

Papers: Subtle DSP Pack, In Colours 2011-2012 DSP Pack, Very Vanilla, Old Olive

Extras: Jewels, Butterfly Punch, Stripes Embossing Folder, Big Shot

Merry Monday #23 {Shimmery Christmas} and CAs-ual Fridays {Bling}

Another Monday is here and a brand new month of sketches here at Merry Monday!  A special thank you to my friend Colleen Dietrich for being such a lovely Featured Designer for May! Thank you Colleen, your cards were spectacular and I loved getting to know you!!! 

June is here and summer is around the corner, I know how challenging it is to think "Christmas" but I am so proud of all my blogging friends, old and new, who have gotten a head start on their Christmas creations!  If you completed all the sketches for May, please grab the badge below for your blog! Congrats!  I have also put the other past monthly badges there, in case you missed some!

I am also thrilled to introduce my Featured Designer for June, Vicki Burdick!  I have always admired Vicki's work and her wonderful style with card making! She creates the most inspiring cards and I was so pleased when she agreed to join me for June! Welcome to the team Vicki! I also asked her to share a bit about herself!

Hi all! My name is Vicki Burdick and I am so thrilled that Lesley invited me to be a Merry Monday maker for the month of June, I am so looking forward to creating along side all the girls here. I have been "stamping" since 2005 when I went to my first Stampin' Up party with a friend. I was hooked right away although I do love all types of crafting! I live in a small town in southwest Missouri, I have been married to my wonderful hubby for almost 36 years and we have one daughter and alot of cats!! I am looking forward to getting a jump start on my Christmas cards!!

This week's sketch is one that I had drumming around in my head and one I thought would be fun to use for many Christmas cards! It is easy to make produce! The wonderful design team and guest designer Danielle Vincent, have created a bevy of cards to inspire you!  Each week, I choose one Merry Monday Winner who will then be a Guest Designer for a future challenge!  So get out your Christmas supplies and let's get to work!    

Lesley Croghan

My card this week was really simple to put together. Using my 5-Petal Punch (which is now retired) I created a poinsettia out of Real Red Glimmer paper. I decided to keep my card nice and clean, so that the poinsettia and the sentiment could take centre stage!  I also went clean and simple with my card, because of the wonderful challenge over at CAS-ual Fridays to use bling on your CAS project!

LeAnne Pugliese

Nina Forsyth

Wendy Aungst

Narelle Farrugia

Bonnie Klass

Vicki Burdick (Featured Designer)

Danielle Vincent (Guest Designer)

Paper Players #96 {Happiness}

This week at the Paper Players, AM has an awesome Clean and Simple Challenge! She is looking for some Polka Dots! I LOVE Polka Dots! 

I inked up my new set called "Mixed Bunch" and used the colours from Colour Q. Then I punched out a couple of flowers, to match the Colour Q Graphic.  Then I used my bird punch to create the leaves for the flowers. I embossed the gray piece of cardstock with my Stripes embossing folder, to make it look like a fence.  The sentiment is from Fabulous Phrases and I cut it out with my new Framelits called "Bitty Banners". Oh I love them!!! The backdrop is embossed with the Swiss Dots embossing folder.

We hope that you will join the Paper Players Challenge this week!  Please be sure to visit the other DT Members to see their wonderful creations!

The Paper Players Design Team

Ann Schach

Anne Marie Hile

LeAnne Pugliese

Lesley Croghan

Nance Leedy

Jenn Picard

Heidi Boos

Narelle Farrugia (GD)

Freshly Made Sketches #5

You know when you make a card and you think to yourself, "I need to remake this or start again!"  Well that was my plan with my Freshly Made Sketches card this week but I just ran out of time. But I do love this little snowman...he is so cute!  This is an exciting week at Freshly Made Sketches because we have Anne Marie Hile as our Featured Designer, and are welcoming Cindy Hall and Jennifer Timko to the team for a 6 month rotation. Welcome ladies!

I started with a Naturals Ivory Card base and then used a layer of Pear Pizzazz cardstock.  The Cherry Cobbler cardstock was embossed using my Big Shot and the Stripes Embossing folder.  The piece of DSP is a piece from the Frostwood Lodge DSP pack.  The image is coloured with my Stampin' Write Markers and then outlined with a blender pen and some Crumb Cake ink.  The sentiment is from the retired set called "All Holidays" and the card was finished off with a snowflake from the snowflake punch.

We hope you have the chance this week to join us at Freshly Made Sketches!

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Picture Perfect Creations #68-Clean and Simple

This week at Picture Perfect Creations we have a very pretty trio of colours that would be perfect as a baby card!  But I needed decided to ink up my new Hostess set called "Simply Soft".  I inked up the images with black stazon ink and then watercoloured the flowers with Peach Parfait, More Mustard and Bashful Blue.

I used the stripes embossing folder again, I just love it!!! This is another clean and simple card, it is always nice to have a blank card in the stash! 

We hope that you will join the Picture Perfect Creations Challenge this week!  Please be sure to visit the other DT Members to see their wonderful creations!

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Smiles,

Lesley

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CCMC #161 and Creative Sketches CS42S

I have had such a great week, stamping and playing along with some challenges that I don't always get to play!  Tonight I could not resist playing along with Create wth Connie and Mary, I love their colour combo this week!!!!  SO pretty!

I also found a new to me challenege called "Creative Sketches".  I love working with sketches and this one really inspired me.  I have been looking at it since yesterday and when I saw the CCMC colours, I had an idea!

So I ceate this card with my Daisy #2 Die for my Big Shot and with my trusty Ribbon Punch!  I used the black as an accent and really tried to hightlight the Daffodil Delight.  The centre white panel is embossed with the new "Stripes" embossing folder (becoming a FAST favourite) and the background is stamped with En Francais in Old Olive on Old Olive cardstock.

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Smiles,

Lesley

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CR84FN and Splitcoast Stampers Sketch Challenge

I have never played along with the CR84FN Challenge before.  I just LOVED the awesome colour combo and decided that I wanted to give it a try!  The Design Team inspiration is amazing!  Then I went in search of a sketch, and found an awesome one for the SCS Sketch Challenge this week!  The samples over there were inspiring too!!!

I decided to ink up another new stamp set (no, I didn't buy EVERYTHING from the new catalogue!! LOL!).  This set is called "Summer Solstice" and it was the number one set I wanted when I saw the new cattie!  I LOVE how it stamps and it is really affordable!  

I used the new In Colour called "Wisteria Wonder" and used Celery and Basic Gray as the colour challenge suggested!!!  The sentiment is from " Pursuit of Happiness" again, I just LURVE that set!!!  Once again, I used my favourite French Script background stamp!!!

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Smiles,

Lesley

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Colour Q Challenge #96

Arielle has a pretty colour combo on right now at the Colour Q.  I love the new In Colour "Lucky Limeade" and Basic Gray is also one of my fav colours as are blues, so I decided to give this combo a whirl! 

I used some more new goodies!  Another sentiment from "Pursuit of Happiness" and I also used a new set called "My Friend" for the floral image which I inked up with my new In Colour Markers.  I also embossed the Bashful Blue background with the new "Stripes" embossing folder.

 Thanks for stopping by!!!

Smiles,

Lesley

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