You're Unfrogettable

Hi everyone - I sure do miss all of you!  Most of you may know from reading my mom's blog that I am awaiting the arrival of our baby boy.  I have been super busy getting everything ready and now I am just waiting for him to decide to join the world!  My official due date is May 27th but Brian Quinn could arrive any day now!

To pass some time, I ventured into my craft room to play around and came across one of my old favorite stamp sets - Unfrogettable by Stampin' Up!  I went with this set so that I could let you all know that I haven't forgotten about you!  I colored the frog with Copics and added sponging with Bliss Blue.  Background paper is from K&Company - Small Wonders Boy.  For embellishments, I added some stitching, ribbon and some tiny flowers I had sitting around.

I hope you are all doing well!  Be sure to check for updates on the baby's arrival back at Lakeside Stamping!

Best!
dee marie

Fresh Birthday

Tonight I am sharing a card that I created for the current challenge over at Freshly Made Sketches.  Here is the sketch to follow for {Freshly Made}Sketches #21:

I just received a package of new items that I had ordered from the Stampin' Up! Sale-A-Bration and couldn't wait to play!  All products used for this card are from Stampin' Up! with the exception of the Nestabilities Eyelet Circle die.  The colors I used are Lucky Limeade, Pool Party and Calypso Coral.  The stamp is from Happiest Birthday Wishes.  The designer paper is from the Everyday Enchantment collection.  Don't you just love the new in-color coordinating baker's twine?!  So sweet!  You can find it in the current Occasions Mini Catalog.

I am hoping to find some more time this week for stamping.  Work is still consuming most of my days.  I hope you had a beautiful weekend!

best!
dee marie

Love Is In The Air

As I am sitting here blogging away, all I can hear is the sound of little sleet balls bouncing off the window.  I hope it clears up by morning - I have a busy day ahead of me at work tomorrow!

Tonight I am sharing the card that I made for this week's challenge over at the A Muse Studio Challenge Blog - Love Is In The Air.  I have to tell you - I had so much fun making this card :)  I just kept stamping and adding - I think I used up a quite a few of my dimensionals - LOL!

All of the stamps that I used for this card are by A Muse.  I started with a blank piece of white card stock and began by stamping the A Muse - Wild Rose Branch repeatedly in Stampin' Up! - Old Olive.  I then sponged around the edges in the same color to blend everything together.  Next, I sewed my newly created background of leaves to a piece of designer paper from My Mind's Eye - Lost & Found - Madison Avenue.  Then I cut out a heart using Nestabilities - Scalloped Heart with the same designer paper, tied a piece of Stampin' Up! Fancy Fibers - Hannah around it in a bow, and added it to the center of the card.  I stamped the A Muse - Kissing Couple onto a piece of white card stock, colored using Copics - E51, RV32 and YG95, punched them out and added a small heart-shaped brad above - kiss kiss.  I added some sponging around them in Stampin' Up! - Blushing Bride.  The A Muse - Wild Rose was stamped, also using Blushing Bride, onto the white card stock, was cut out and added to the card using dimensionals.  The same was done with some extra leaves - layering on top of the original image.  Here is a close up so you can really see the layering:

Finally, to finish the card, I stamped A Muse - Love Is In The Air, cut it out by hand, added some sponging, and then attached it to the bottom corner.  I like how it blends in with the greenery but still pops out and grabs your attention.

Thank you for taking the time to check out my card!

best!
dee marie

It's Not The Years In Your Life

 

Tonight I am sharing the card that I made for this week's "Just Us Girls" Challenge - JUGS #118 Sketch.

The stamps I used to create this card are all from Gina K. Designs.  A Year of Flowers, Pressed Flowers and Inspiration Mosaic are all sets designed by Melanie Muenchinger.  For the tulips, I first stamped all of the solid elements using various stamps from Pressed Flowers.  They were inked with Memento markers in Lady Bug and Bamboo Leaves.  I then went over the solid images with the outline stamps from A Year of Flowers.  I didn't line them up perfectly, but I ended up liking the end result.  What do you think?  The sentiment is from Inspiration Mosaic.  Nestabilities were used to cut out both the image and the sentiment (I turned my sentiment from the sketch).  All designer paper is from My Mind's Eye - Meadowlark.  I kept the details simple on this card and just added a little red card stock border on the squares, some sponging in black, and a small red bow.

I hope everyone is enjoying their week!

best!
dee marie

May You Find Comfort

A sympathy card for a dear friend who lost her father last week - so terribly sad.  She lost her mom around the same time last year.  I can't image how she is feeling.  I will be getting this out to her this week.

To create this card, I pulled my inspiration from this week's challenge at CardPatterns - Sketch 147:

I turned the sketch 90 degrees to the right.  The base of the card is Gina K's Pure Luxury card stock in Kraft.  The designer paper I used is from the My Mind's Eye - So Sophie - Graceful 6x6 paper pad.  The sentiment is from Inkadinkado - Kathy Davis, which I stamped and then cut out the shape by hand.  I added a mat of designer paper under the sentiment that I cut out and embossed with Nestabilities Labels Eight.  For the bottom border, I used a piece of frayed canvas and then added some Prima flowers and leaves.  The centers are small yellow pearls.  I added some smaller flowers to the sentiment as well.  All sponging was done using Memento Close to Cocoa ink.  Two small vintage buttons from Grandmom's stash were added to the corners to complete the card.

I hope you have a great start to your week!

best!
dee marie

February 14th - Keeping it Clean!

Soon the day full of love, kisses, chocolate and romance will be here (and it will be my first one as a married lady)!  I dug out all of my Valentine's Day supplies, followed along with two challenges, and this is what I came up with.  I used Gina K Pure Luxury cardstock in Lipstick Red and White to create all of the multiple layers.  The stamps are from the Stampin' Up! set A Happy Heart.  The hearts were cut out and embossed using Nestabilities Scalloped Hearts dies, and the sentiment was cut out with my Stampin' Up Word Window punch.  I used dimensionals to make the layers pop.  My embellishments are some wide grosgrain ribbon and a few pieces of red and white baker's twine.

The first challenge I followed is this week's challenge at Joan's Gardens - JG512.  This week, you have to use some kind of hearts, use any kind of embellishments, use pink or red with white, and do some kind of embossing.  So much fun!  Thanks Joan!

I also played along with Freshly Made Sketches # 16 sketch challenge.  This was a tough challenge for me.  Not only do you follow along with the sketch, but you have to keep your card "clean" - no distressing, sponging or ripping and tearing allowed.

Both blogs are just full of inspiration and endless fabulous creations!  Be sure to check them both out!

I hope everyone had a good week!  TGIF!

best!
dee marie

Pressed and Distressed

Tonight I am sharing with you a card that I created for Gina K's inspiration challenge for this week - Diamonds are a girl's best friend! over at Stamp TV. The challenge is to use diamonds on your card. I followed Gina's video tutorial on how to do background embossing with your Scor-pal. I decided to change it up a bit and give my card more of a distressed look.

My base card is Gina's Pure Luxury card stock in Chocolate Kiss and I paired it up with one of her newer colors, Creme De Menthe. After scoring my background piece, I used SU! ink in Close to Cocoa on a sponge to "dirty it up" a bit. I then distressed it by spraying it with water from my Mini Mister and then rubbing sand paper over the front and edges. For my image, I used stamps from Melanie Muenchinger's new stamp set, Pressed Flowers. I used Memento markers in several colors to ink the stamps and create my tulips. I then cut them out using Nestabilities Labels 9, and sponged around the edges with SU! So Saffron and Close to Cocoa. To make the tulips pop, I accented them with my Inkssentials opaque pen. I kept my embellishing simple and just added a piece of sheer ribbon and some copper brads to the corners.

I hope everyone enjoys the rest of their week! It's almost Friday!

She Said "YES!"

With everything that has been going on with the home buying process, wedding plans seem to have taken the back seat. There was one thing, though, that I just couldn't wait any longer to do! On Friday night, I went to visit my best friend Kristy with a very special question to ask her :) I wanted to make it unique and creative so here is what I came up with:

Using Basic Grey Sugar Rush designer paper, I began by covering all of the panels to my gable box. Then, I made a label for the front panel using the "dear friend" stamp from SU! Bella Blossoms and two different shapes from Nestabilities Fancy Tags. I layered the tags and added some pearls to embellish.

Next I created the most important part, the question! The question itself is computer generated, printed out on card stock, and cut out using Nestabilites label 4. Sponging was done in SU! Almost Amethyst (this color works perfectly with Sugar Rush). I layered it onto some more designer paper and added a few finishing details with some ribbon, a flower and a pearl center.

Then, you guessed it, into the box it went! I added some white tissue around it so it would stay put.

I closed up the box and added just a few more coordinating embellishments to the outside. I created these layered flowers for the side panels with the help of my new Martha Stewart Large Chrysanthemum punch.

When finished (and after my last picture), I tied the top shut with a big bow using white tulle.

We ended up going out to dinner Friday night so I had the perfect opportunity to hand the box across the table. When she opened the box and saw the question inside, she shouted, "YES!" and my heart filled with joy! I am such a lucky lady to have Kristy as my best friend and I am so blessed to have her by my side as I plan my special day!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Hope is Faith Blog Hop

Feelings of Hope -
Hope for Haiti

Gina challenged the Center Stage Spotlight team to make a card with the new Hope is Faith stamp set using the photo above for inspiration. Check out Gina's blog for all the details on this special stamp set.


For my card, I used the colors from Gina's photo for my inspiration. All of the designer papers I chose to use are from the SEI Oasis collection, and are layered with Gina K's Pure Luxury Black Only card stock. I started by stamping the butterfly image down the side of the designer paper using Memento Tuxedo Black ink. I then colored over the butterflies with my VersaMarker and embossed them with clear embossing powder. Next, I started layering paper down the opposite side of the card to start building up my border. I used my SU! Scalloped Border punch for the edge and added some black bling. I also added some trim that I thought mimicked the butterfly wings. I wanted to have the word "HOPE" stand out on the front of this card. I found some die-cut alphabets and pulled out the four letters that I needed. It looked okay, but it needed something more. I decided to replace the letter "O" with a flower - what do you think? I used a vintage pearl button with some black thread and added it to the flower's center to finish the front of my card.

I used the sentiment from Gina K's new Hope is Faith set for the inside of my card. I stamped the sentiment onto the dp, and cut it out using the Fancy Tags Nestabilities. I cut the same tag out a second time using the Black Onyx card stock, and cut off the curly ends to add to the sides of the sentiment to make it pop!

Be sure to stop by and visit these talented designers who are also participating in tonight's Hope is Faith blog hop:

Jessica Fick

Diana S. Queen

Tina Gilliland

Pam Imholz

Carla Suto

Cheri Weston

Jennie Harper

Joy Hadden

Shannon Bracken

Karen Knegten

JenMarie Taylor

Brenda Turner

Giovanna Smith

Sue Morris

Melissa Shultz

Peggy Wainman

Sharri Seffens

Carolina Buchting

Geri Utterback

Melissa Cash

Betty Neville

Sue Van deVusse

Janice Melton

Jen Charboneau

DeeMarie Kelemen

Linda Payne

Lori McAree

Kay Simmons

Shelly Wilson

Selma Stevenson

Vicki Dutcher

Sue Walsh

I hope you enjoyed all of the gorgeous butterflies tonight! Throughout the month of February, $2.00 from every sale of the Hope is Faith stamp set will be donated to the Red Cross for earthquake relief in Haiti.

Many Wishes!

Happy Monday! Today I am sharing with you a card that I created for The Color Dare challenge this week. The colors to use are SU! Pacific Point, Baja Breeze, Kiwi Kiss and Basic Grey. Using some of the stamps from Many Wishes by Gina K. Designs, and following the Magic Snowflake tutorial over at SCS, I created my focal image. This is such a fun technique and the end result is always so vibrant! The re-inkers I used were Pacific Point and Baja Breeze. If you would like to try out this technique, you can check out the tutorial here. I cut my image out using a Nestability die, and then layered with the same size die-cut at the top and bottom, using Kiwi Kiss card stock. The base card is Baja Breeze, and the designer papers are from SU! To finish the card, I added some satin ribbon tied in a bow.

Have a great night!

Tiger Lilies

This card was created for the Flower Picking Contest over on Mel Muenchinger's blog. With the Gina K. Designs new release just around the corner, who would not LOVE to win Mel's new set!? (You can see a snippet of the set here on Gina K's blog). Mel is asking us to get creative with her set "A Year of Flowers" - one of my favorite sets - and not only can you win her new set that releases on February 11th, but she is also looking for a Guest Designer for March!

For my creation, I used the lily, stem, and leaf images and stamped them multiple times using the masking technique. I colored them using my Koh-I-Noor pencils and OMS. I then heat embossed the lilies with clear embossing powder, cut them out using a Nestability die, and sponged around them using SU! ink in So Saffron. I decided to cut out one extra lily and add it using a pop dot to give the grouping some more dimension. I created the card using Gina K's Pure Luxury card stock in Chocolate Kiss, then layered on So Saffron card stock, then a piece of designer paper from Basic Grey Origins, and finally some more Chocolate Kiss. I added the colored image to the center using a few more pop dots. I added some stitching with the Janome, and to finish the card, I added some corners that I punched of a scrap of Origins DP with my SU! Corner Punch. I have included a picture of tiger lilies from the internet that I used for my inspiration for this card.

Here in northern New Jersey, we braced ourselves for this big, unpredictable snow storm, and we ended up with less than an inch so far. Not sure if it's done yet or not, but I am still planning on staying in an stamping today in between cleaning up for the Super Bowl party tomorrow!

Enjoy your weekend!

For Someone Special

Tonight I am sharing another card that I made this past weekend while I was visiting mom - had to take advantage of the Copics :) This card is for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge to create a card for someone special. The image, Hedgehog Bouquet by Penny Black, was colored using the following Copic Sketch markers: 0, C1, C3, E00, E02, RV10, RV1, RV32, RV34, W1, W3, Y15, Y17, YG13 and YG17. After I was finished coloring, I cut the image out using a one of the Nestabilities labels, and sponged around the background using SU! ink in Baja Breeze and Sahara Sand. The sentiment which reads, "Friends are flowers that never fade." is from an older SU! set called Favorite Friends (I thought it went well with this adorable hedgie). My base card was created using Pure Luxury card stock in Soft Sand and the designer paper is from Basic Grey Phoebe. I added some stitching around the border using my Janome sew mini. To create my coordinating butterfly, I used my new Martha Stewart Monarch punch (isn't it just darling?) on Soft Sand card stock, added some sponging, and backed it with scraps of the ribbon the I used at the bottom of the card, so that the color and texture would show through the cut out wings. To finish the card, I added some pearls to the butterfly's body as well as the two opposite corners.

On a side note, Happy Groundhog Day :) Unfortunately, good ol' Phil saw his shadow... I don't know if I can take six more weeks of winter!

I hope you are enjoying your week!

Sung From The Heart

It has been way too many days since my last post! As some of you may know, I have been house hunting with Shaun since last summer in search of our perfect home. Well, after looking at nearly 80 houses, we finally found it! What a process this has been... Our offer has been accepted, we made it through attorney review, and now we have the inspection this weekend. I am just praying that everything goes well, and if it does, we plan to close in April :) I will keep you posted!

I finally had some time tonight to get inky :) I finished up a card I have been working on for a blog hop featuring Gina K's Sung From The Heart stamp set by Rupa Shevde. This set was just released a few weeks ago and it's perfect for Valentines! All of the sentiments in this set are song lyrics that coordinate with the images. To create my card, I actually added in some images from another one of Rupa's sets, 100% Sweet! I found that these two sets coordinate perfectly to make one "sweet" card :) For the layout of the card, I followed Jennie Harper's sketch challenge over at Stamp TV.

I started with an A2 card that I made from Gina K's Pure Luxury card stock in Lipstick Red. I then added on the layers using designer paper from Basic Grey Sugar Rush. I created a lacy border using a Martha Stewart border punch. I stamped the bird image from Sung From The Heart directly onto the designer paper, and using my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig, I replaced the heart that was on the string with the cherry from 100% sweet. I have the bird flying over to place the cherry atop my cupcake :) Both the bird and cupcake were paper pieced and were accented using colored pencils. The sentiment was stamped twice and cut out in two parts using my SU! Word Window punch. All sponging was done using SU! ink in Rose Romance. To finish the card, I added a button and some tulle.

If you would like to see other cards that were made using Rupa's new set, visit Gina K's blog here and follow the hop!

I hope you enjoy the rest of your week!

Baby On The Way!

This past weekend I headed down to southern New Jersey for a baby shower :) One of my dearest friends from college, Christina, is expecting and is due on February 19th. The theme for her shower was "Pink or Blue we welcome you!", as the sex of the baby will be a surprise. Christina and her husband, Mike, are so excited! I can't wait for the arrival of their new bundle of joy :) I am sharing with you two of my favorite pictures from this past weekend. The first is of Christina (mother-to-be) wearing the bonnet full of bows that we created as she unwrapped all of her gifts. In the second photo (left to right: Dee, Julie, Christina, Becca, and Tara) is our close-knit group of friends from college standing in the baby's nursery. We all live in different areas (NJ, PA and MD) so we don't get to see each other as often as we would like to, but we had such a wonderful weekend together celebrating this beautiful occasion :) I just noticed as I was posting the photos that most of us are wearing blue - could it be a sign?
So, for Christina's shower card, I decided on a onesie. I don't get to make these often so I had to jump at the chance! Since Christina does not know the sex of the baby, I had to keep the card gender neutral. I used textured yellow card stock from DCWV to create an A2 card. Using my SU! 1 3/8" circle punch, I punched the neck and leg holes. Using a craft knife and ruler, I made two cuts on each side to create the sleeves. I then added some scalloped trim by punching the 1 3/8" holes into textured white card stock, centered the hole inside the SU! scalloped circle punch, and then adhered it to the card. For the image, I stamped the stork from SU! Along the Same Lines with Memento Tuxedo Black ink onto the white textured card stock. I then colored the image using Memento markers in Cantaloupe, New Sprout and Desert Sand. The stork was cut out with one of the scalloped heart Nestabilities, and was sponged around the edges with New Sprout Ink. Three green button brads were added across the bottom where the onesie would button together.

I will be sure to update you and share some pictures when the baby arrives :)

What Is Going On Down There?

I love to add stitching to my cards - it's such an easy way to give your finished projects some added texture. I have been using my Janome sew mini for about a year now and I don't know what I would do without it. I like to use heavy duty thread in my machine when sewing on paper and card stock, and you can find it in a variety of colors to coordinate with all of your projects.

The new challenge over at JUGS for this week is to add stitching to your project. For this card, I used the smallest straight stitch setting on my machine and some heavy duty white thread to create the border. The designer paper that I used for the background is from Basic Grey - Lemonade, and I used a scrap from this paper and my SU! Corner Punch to create my paper pierced corner treatments. My image (which always cracks me up!) is from Dewey, Inkum & Howe. I colored the birds with pencils and OMS. I then added accents to them using coordinating colors of my Sakura Star Dust pens. These pens are perfect for adding some sparkle to your image. I took a close up picture of the blue bird to show you how much they shimmer and shine :) I cut out the birds with my Labels One Nestabilities, and sponged with some sky blue ink. I then cut out some clouds using my Labels Six Nestabilities, and ran them through the Cuttlebug using the Swiss Dot embossing folder. Doesn't this sentiment (unknown) work perfectly with this image? I thought so. To finish this card, I added some flowers and coordinating brads.

Do Mice Stamp?

This one sure does! I decided to play with my House Mouse stamps today. These little furry friends always seem to bring a smile :) While going through my basket, I came across this stamp - Pogo Stamp - and sentiment by Stampa Rosa. I won these stamps in a lot on eBay awhile back and this is the first time they have seen ink.

I stamped the image in Memento Tuxedo Black and colored it using Koh-I-Noor pencils and OMS. I cut out the image using one of my Nestabilities, embossed the edge, and sponged on some ink in SU! Buckaroo Blue and Vintage Violet. The designer paper is unknown (from my scrap bin) and the card stock is SU! Vintage Violet. I added some flocked mesh flowers across the top and used grey pearls for the centers, as well as on the sentiment.

Celebrating Melanie's Two Year Anniversary!

Melanie Muenchinger is celebrating two years of blogging and illustrating for Gina K Designs! To help celebrate, I created this Valentine using two of her stamp sets: A Year of Flowers and Inspiration Mosaic.

I used designer paper from Basic Grey - Sugared to create the mosaic for the background, and sewed it onto a piece of Gina K's Pure Luxury card stock in Chocolate Kiss. I then ran two pieced of SU! - Riding Hood Red card stock through the Cuttlebug, using the hearts folder. The image was stamped using Memento ink in Tuxedo Black and was colored using my Koh-I-Noor pencils and OMS. I added a few hearts that I cut and embossed using the Scalloped Heart Nestability set. The sentiment was stamped onto designer paper and then punched out using a tag punch. All sponging was done using SU! ink in Riding Hood Red.

If you would also like to celebrate with Mel and have a chance at winning some of her fabulous blog candy, see the details here. I hope you are able to join the party!