Elegance in a Houndstooth Wrap...The PDCC36

What a fun week this has been in preparation for

the new color challenge at The Play Date Cafe.

I am the color host this week and absolutely

ADORE these colors!

First, we were inspired by this fabulous layout

courtesy of Marthastewart.com

Then, Ruby 2 Shoes issued a friendly little

'insider challenge' to me personally, to create

something using our 'under-used'

Tim Holtz Bird Cage Dies from Sizzix.

From there, the entire team got in on it, at least the

bird/birdcage-theme.  So we hope you enjoy it!

I used a couple of my favorite stamps from

The Artistic Stamper.

The 'Houndstooth Background' which I used on my birdcage

was a perfect match for a little BOO that I used, those paper

flowers from Making Memories.

I also used the very versatile 'Swirl' accent stamp

for my bird.  I gave the white background a little texture

using my 'Stylized Flowers' EF from Cuttlebug

(another favorite) and topped it all off 

with bling here and there.

We are really happy to have Kelly Marie from

Lawn Fawn back as our guest designer and sponsor

this week.  Even Kelly got in on our little

'insider challenge'  : )

One more note...

A good friend to The PDCC made a HUGE

contribution to our challenge blog this week.

You'll have to visit The Cafe to find out what,

but I want to extend a personal thank you to our

friend Paul B of The Artsiders for not only his

wonderful gift to our team and you, the players...

but for his continued support and inspiration each week!

Come play with us at The Play Date Cafe!

Love this Color Combo in The Play Date Cafe!

I love this color combination!

So many options...so many ways to play!

Mona Pendleton is our host this week

and she really put a great collection of colors

together for you to play with.

When you make your way over, you will be

amazed at the creative inspiration from one of the  

most creative design teams 

in the challenge world!  Biased...maybe a bit  : )

The focal point on this card is a wonderful stamp that

Sarah sent to me from Wendy House over in the UK.

The background was created with a Tim Holtz/SA

stamp and the sentiment is Ippity.

Honestly, this is so about the 'color story'

and layering...really quite simple!

Did I mention that you have a chance

to win THIS FAB SET from

our sponsor?  That's right!

So glad to have Courtney Baker

from Practicing Creativity Designs

as our Celebrity Guest Designer.

We thank her for sharing her creativity

with us this week!

Here's just a peek:

I will be back tomorrow with another

project to share and a reminder about

a very special giveaway I have coming up

this weekend!

Happy Saturday ... What Have YOU Been Up To?

It's a bit of a dreary Saturday here in Northern Illinois.

A little papercraft shopping always brightens my day,

so that's how I spent a bit of today.

I love working with these colors and thought I would

make a card for a few challenges.

I used the fabulous 'sequin background' from

The Artistic Stamper.

I love, LOVE this background!

I used a sweet little Studio G set for the flowers

and the sentiment is from Wordsworth.

Here are the challenges:

Stampin' Sisters in Christ #35

(flowers)



Sew Many Challenges #12
(anything goes)

Diva Coffee Break Designs #173

(sketch)

Penny's Paper Crafty Challenge #27
(anything goes)

Pile it On #15
(think spring)

Before I go, here's something I would LOVE
to know.....

WHAT ARE YOU CREATING THIS WEEKEND?

Please leave a comment...it's always fun to see
what YOU are working on  : )

Color Splash...What's Not to Love?

DESIGN TEAM CALL
FINAL 24 HOURS

Click here

 

I love black and white with just a 'splash' of color.

I always have...so this week's Play Date Cafe Challenge

is one of my favorites.

I'm really excited to share with you that 

The 'Color Splash' Challenge will be offered

as a regular challenge every six weeks or so 

over in The Cafe.

 

You're encouraged to interpret which side of teal you

will land on....teal green or teal blue.

So I thought I would share a couple other cards with

variations on the theme.

 

This would have been a perfect card to celebrate the recent

'Blue Moon' that we experienced at New Year's.

How fabulous are these stamps from Memory Box?!

The background stamp is from Artistic Stamper.

For me, 'color splash' is about the 'hint' of color, but I 

thought I would bring in one more card that uses the

featured color just a bit more.

Again, using the same stamps but achieving a little different result.

 

So there you have it....a little teal in both green and blue.

I would really encourage you to get on over to

The Play Date Cafe and play along with us this week.

Whether you make cards, scrapbook layouts, jewelry,

crochet, knit, paint, digital art....you name it

It's ALL welcome in The Cafe!

Happy Birthday to Gingersnap Creations

This past month, the creative team for

The Artistic Stamper

(of which I am a part)

have been playing along with the design team for

Gingersnap Creations.

 

I have really enjoyed playing along all month and plan

to continue doing so.  Their challenges are fun and

allow you to be 'all sorts of creative'.

The final challenge for February was in honor of

Gingersnap's upcoming 1st birthday.

to make any type of birthday card.

I actually had someone in mind when I made

this one, but I can't say who it is because I know he reads

my blog (no, not my Paul).

This is a really simple card with a few layers.

It features the brand spankin' new

'Lace background' stamp from

The Artistic Stamper.

It doesn't show up nearly as well in the photo, but

I wanted to keep these colors pretty muted.

Again, if you haven't seen the tutorial on how to make

this NO-sew ribbon border, you can catch the tutorial

over at the Gingersnap blog.

The little details include:

Martha Stewart Eyelet Stationary & Satin ribbon

Prima paper flowers

Stickles in my favorite...platinum

and assorted brads and pearls

Tomorrow night at midnight kicks off another brand new 

challenge over at the Play Date Cafe.

We are using a rather unique 'color combo', so you

will not want to miss it!

Begging for Spring!

As I made a visit to my friend Julie Campbell's blog

I found one of the seven deadly sins setting in.

You guessed it...

ENVY!

 

I had already started working on this card last

night, but after seeing the lovely photos of

an early spring in California, I decided to get this

finished so I could get a decent photo

because the sunshine just isn't cooperating right now.

This is from the new 'Songbird' Collection from DCWV.

I did a little sewing and added buttons and

Diamond Stickles and the verse is a rub-on

(which is my BOO for the day...

I've had those FoReVeR!)

My favorite embellishment though, is the ribbon

detail that I tried my hand at thanks to the 

tutorial over at the Gingersnaps Creations blog.

Erika shows step-by-step this ultra-easy way to

make the gathered trim WITHOUT sewing.

I used fabulous textured satin ribbon from

Martha Stewart.

 

So did you visit yesterday?

I had a great time putting together the

'Autograph Sessions' interview with 

Diana Trout, author of 'Journal Spilling'.

If you missed it, just click here.

I also want to congratulate Jennie and Hels

over at The Artistic Stamper on their 400th follower.

Jennie is giving away another batch of blog candy 

to celebrate, so I hope you will stop by & say hello!

That's it for today....but before I go,

here is what I want to know.....

What technique or product for paper crafting

have you NOT tried yet, but really want to?

I've been thinking about some tutorials for you

and would love to know what trips YOUR trigger!

Leave a comment and let's see what we come up with!

What's Brewing? Coffee and a Little More...

 

The Play Date Cafe Challenge was posted extremely late

and I promised the players over there if they stopped

by my blog, I would explain why.

I will do that at the end of this post...

I LoVe this photo by Maria Medeiros over at CozyComfyCouch.

I thought it was terrific inspiration and am very excited to see

what everyone does with this color combo.

Me?  I took it a bit 'literally' 

and went very CAS (clean and simple)!

 

I have the limited edition Fiskar's 'coffee mug' punch and 

thought this was the perfect time to use it.

I stamped the linen-finish punched-pieces with the fabulous

'Simple Swirls' Flourish stamp from Artistic Stamper.

These stamps are so versatile and I love having them as

my 'go-to' background images.

The sentiment is from The Paper Company.

The 'Eyelet Lace Border' punch and ribbon 

are from Martha Stewart.

A quick reminder that the DESIGN TEAM CALL

is still going on over at The Play Date Cafe.

For all the details, click here

Now to share the past 24 hours of frustration...

Recognize this?  If you have been a follower of my blog

for the past 6 months or so, you know we recently went through

the construction process of a brand new road.

If you are newer to The Open Window, I would encourage you

to catch up with the story HERE before you continue.

The reason for the close-up photo above is to give you an idea of

the proximity from our patio to what's next.

 

We awoke yesterday morning to lots of noise and many voices.

As I looked out the patio doors, this was the scene behind

all the condo units.  It seems when they built the now famous

'Road to Nowhere', the original easement was not in the appropriate

place, so all....yes, ALL the underground utility lines had to be moved.

About 3pm on Wednesday, I arrived home to no electricity and the

conversation went something like this:

"can you tell me how long we will be without power?"

"we're working on it"

"so you have no idea if this was planned or accidental"

"we're working on it...we've called ComEd"

 OH-oh...oops!

No lights, no phone, no heat...chilly.

At 8:30pm, 2 men, who I would assume were 

frozen to the core, gave me the good news that we

were getting close...mission accomplished shortly after that.

I rushed to my computer only to find that my DSL was

not functioning.  I picked up our phone and....dead.

It was like an army of people outside today...workers everywhere.

Obviously our phone and DSL service were restored...

approximately 3pm this afternoon.

And now...

HERE'S what it looks like outside my patio door

as I type this...

When they spotted for all these cables, they said not to worry because

it's all done very 'electronically' so the digging will be minimal.

This is just behind our condo...it looks like this behind every building.

Here's the part that I just have to laugh at....

It was only OUR unit...

our lowly little abode that was disconnected.
Gee...I hope they're coming back.

Don't they KNOW I have a blog to take care of?

The Roaring Twenties with Gingersnap Creations

 

TWO POSTS TODAY...so make sure you keep scrolling...

It's that time of the week...the Gingersnap Challenge!

I really had fun with this color challenge, which was to

feature any three colors.

The entire month challenges is being sponsored by

The Artistic Stamper.

I am proud to be on their creative team and have

really enjoyed using the new

'Roaring Twenties' & 'Roses are Red' stamps.

For the die cut flowers, I also used the

'Houndstooth Background' image.

 

Make sure you stop by this fabulous challenge blog 

and see what their design team have cooked up.

They are one talented bunch of folks!

The Roaring Twenties wtih Gingersnap Creations

 

I'm very happy to again be participating with the fabulous

Gingersnap Creations Challenge

representing the creative team at The Artistic Stamper,

this month's sponsor.

 

This week's challenge is a 'supply' challenge using Lace and Fibers.

I went a bit minimal on my fibers and trim as I wanted something that would enhance this fabulous 'Roaring Twenties' image.

All the stamps are from the wonderful, new

Artistic Stamper 'Romance' Collection.

I used Lumiere paint in super copper to stamp

the versatile 'Sequin Waste' background.

The sentiment is from the

'Roses are Red' set 

Stickles in platinum, silver and lime were used to accent
the dress, jewelry and shoes.

Please stop by Gingersnap Creations
and see what their design team 

have offered for inspiration for this week's challenge.

More Romance with Gingersnap Creations

I'm very happy to be participating with the fabulous
Gingersnap Creations Challenge

representing the creative team at The Artistic Stamper,
this month's sponsor.

The theme for this week's challenge is 'Romance'.
These birds look like they know a thing or two about romance, so they were my inspiration.

 

I used the fabulous new stamps from

Artistic Stamper's 'Romance' Collection.

The wonderful 'Heart Background' is so versatile.  

I also used the 'Roses are Red' set 

to stamp the heart shape and the sentiment.  

I used Ranger's Crackle Accents for a special effect on the heart.

I also used a variety of Stickles to highlight the clip art which is from Sandra Evertson's 'Wedding' Book.

Prima Flowers add the finishing touches.

Hope you will stop by Gingersnap Creations and see what their design team have offered for inspiration for this week's challenge.

Hope your week is going well.  We are half way through and it's been a busy and creative one for me.  Make sure you stop by tomorrow to see the new challenge from The Play Date Cafe.

Romance is in the Air...

 

Wanted to share a quick post with you today using a fabulous, 

brand new stamp from Artistic Stamper's 'Romance' Collection.  

Although this center heart is rather small, this stamp is HUGE!

 

It's a full size background of fun hearts!

I used VersaMark to create a subtle background and then outlined EVERYTHING

with Stardust Stickles.  

A little 'BOO' with the Heidi Grace DP from this past summer.

All the edges were distressed using the Tim Holtz tool.

Found these great tags that are used for tying treat bags 

and thought they would be great for an instant greeting.  

Not a fan of the photo, but it was the best I could do for a Monday...

I KNOW you know what I'm talking about!

Pretty self-explanatory, this one.  

Used my 'Bug' and the Paisley EF for the background 

(thank you Mona). 

Then a little more embossing with the Swiss Dot EF and 

the Scalloped Circles from Spellbinders.

I wish the silver metallic was just a bit 'shinier' in the photo, 

but you can see it.

Well...like I said before, it's Monday.  So need to get to 'Monday stuff'.

Hope you will leave a comment to let me know you were here.

It's the only way I can comment back.

I love hearing from YOU!

Romance...In More Ways Than One

Romantic Style...what does that look like to you? 

I think like anything else, it's different things to different people.

You know I love the 'shabby-chic' style...although pastels are a bit harder for my brain to work with,

when this card came together,

I just sat back and took a deep breath in.

I love the background stamps from Artistic Stamper.   I used the Polka Dots image for the bold background and the Simple Swirls for the subtle pink background and the gray foreground on the tag.

The sentiment is from Wordsworth.  There are all kinds of 'extras' that complete this card including the Martha Stewart Eyelet Lace Around the Page Border, Prima Flowers and silk ribbon.

As I continue to clear my stash, this is a very old die cut from Colorbok that I embellished with

'Carrera Marble' Tinsel Glitter also from Martha Stewart.

Now for romance of a different style.

I love the new 'Mariposa Collection' from DCWV.  The 12 x 12 stack is perfect for card-makers because there are so many wonderful images that can be cut out and layered.

Yep...more Prima Flowers.  Such a quick and easy embellishment.

Although I didn't use them on this project, I also purchased the box of die-cuts that match this collection.  They are beautiful, so I am sure they will turn up here soon!

Quick little story...My dear grandmother, who was one of the biggest influences on my creative life, bought me a sewing machine many, MANY years ago and truthfully, the only time it was used, was when her machine had to go in for servicing.
She would borrow my little unit to get her by.

I finally broke out that machine a couple weeks ago, but for the life of me, I could not keep the bobbin thread from tangling with every effort I made to sew.  I mentioned it to my mom who said, "You know, I think your grandma had the same problem with that machine every time she borrowed it.  I have her machine stored away,
maybe you should give it a try."   
Grandma was a master, self-taught seamstress.
Well, grandma's machine had the magic touch!

I put it to use for the first time on these cards
and I just love the results.

My stitches aren't perfect....
but romance sometimes isn't either.....