Secret Santa Swap

Jennie organized a really fun Designer Secret Santa Swap this year to make a chipboard album, a card, an ornament and a tag in time for Christmas. I used a lot of Basic Grey papers on my album, tag and ornament and the card was featured in an earlier post .

Here's the same picture showing the back of the ornament. It's the fist time I've ever made one and I was a bit at a loss so kept it simple and decorated the Basic Grey ornament template with rhinestones on one side and cut out some some Christmas DP and rub ons for the other.

My Secret Santa was Novell and I got an absolutely stunning album and gifts from her! Check them out on her blog.

~Olgy

Puppies!

I know, I haven't posted in ages and here's why... we got these furry kids a few weeks ago and they've taken over our lives. I'm running on just a few hours of sleep a night and the whole day is dedicated to housebreaking, feeding, spending time with them etc but with cute paws and faces like this make it worth it.

This sweet and super energetic girl is Mia. She's a Dane and is growing by the minute. I wanted to get a Dane for a really long time and she's mommy's "little" girl. Soon after we found Mia, Pete found this fluffy teddy bear Dex in a shelter's foster home and our household doubled.

Happy belated holidays!

~Olgy

Bella Birthday Hop

Welcome to the Bella Birthday Blog Hop celebrating her 3rd birthday! If you want to start at the beginning, visit Bella's blog today after 9am central. Now on with the party.

We got our first freeze in Austin last night and I can't wait for the winter to end. At least these Bellas are enjoying the sunshine on their birthday.

The Gardenbella is paired with spring colors, flowers and of course some glitter and pearls. What girl can go without them? The sketch is from SCS255 challenge.
Supplies:

• Stamps: Gardenbella
  
• Paper: BasicGrey Lilykate, My Mind's Eye Tres Jolie , gruvy guava & chocolate chip by SU
  
• Ink: Momento black, certainly celery by SU, Copics (E53)
• Accessories: Prima flowers, pink pearls, Stickles, clear button, twine, yellow SU ribbon, green Basic Grey ribbon

The Beachbella is doing even better on the sun and dressed up in the yellow paper pierced bikini and towel. The sketch is from SC254 challenge. I was singing the Yellow Polka Dot Bikini song as I was making this card, so I printed the lyrics on the inside.

Supplies:

• Stamps: Beachbella
  
• Paper: Bordering  from SU, DP from BasicGrey Offbeat collection and Plum Daisy from Chatterbox
  
• Ink: Momento black, Bordering blue, Copics (E53, Y21)
• Accessories: Metal Tag and clips, Prima flower, button, rhinestones
  
• Tools: Cuttlebug, punches

Thanks for stopping by my blog and your next stop on the hop is Margie's Blog or you can find the master thread of participants here.

~Olgy

Clean and Simple Monday

A quick CAS redo today. No layers, no ribbon  - just a simple white card. A good way to start a Monday.

The line creses were made with a score blade on regular cutter because I don't have a ScorePal. The flower is colored with Copics and glazed with Glossy Acrylics. Thanks for stopping by.

Supplies (All supplies are Stampin'Up! unless otherwise noted) :

• Stamps: Oh So Lovely
  
• Paper: Whisper White
  
• Ink: Momento Black, Copics (BG10, B23)
• Accessories: Pretties Kit, Glossy Accents

~Olgy

Poppy Fields Hedgehog Card

Thanksgiving is over, winter is just around the corner and it's gloomy outside right now. To momentarily forget this weather and step back into summer I chose to CASE this card from MrsBoz for todays SCS Featured Stamper challenge. 

I already had this adorable hedgehog Wish RAK image colored begging to be used on the next card, so I had to oblige. Besides, I needed to take a break from Christmas cards. I added some brads, acrylic on the poppies and Stickles on the butterflies. I kept the overall layout and color scheme the same, but added splashes of yellow and ribbon tabs. Doesn't this card just scream summer?

Supplies (All supplies are Stampin'Up! unless otherwise noted) :

• Stamps: Poppy Fields by Penny Black
• Paper: Basic grey, real red, certainly celery, whisper white
  
• Ink: Real red, certainly celery, summer sun, Copics (C5, E00, blender)
• Accessories: Brads, RibbonFX, ribbon from Michaels, Prima flowers, Glossy Accents, Stickles
  
• Tools: Cuttlebug

~Olgy

Christmas Cards

In the past years I came up with Christmas card design and then made the same set for that year. It streamlined the process and I didn't have to think who gets which card. This year, however, I just couldn't make up my mind on what I wanted and continued to make cards until I had about a dozen different ones. I finally gave up on the idea of a single design. I just hope that everyone likes the card they end up with. Here's a sneak peak.

This first one is a cute penguin by Whipper Snapper. The layout was for a clean and simple SCS challenge, so it's pretty basic, but I flocked and added glitter to the little guy for some dimension. Both the tan (ok, I know penguins aren't tan, but he was willing to make the sacrifice for the sake of color coordination) and white parts are covered in fun flock which I had to apply it in two steps. If you want to know more about using flocking see my earlier Fun Flock Tutorial post.

Supplies: (All supplies are Stampin'Up! unless otherwise noted)

• Stamps: Whipper Snapper Ice Cream Penguin
  
• Paper: Very vanilla, My Minds Eye DP
  
• Ink: Momento Black, chocolate chip, close to cocoa, certainly celery, real red, rose royal, pumpkin pie
• Accessories:  RibbonFx, Fun Flock, Stickles

Next is a quick poinsettia card using Basic Grey paper. I just added some chunky glitter for a frosted effect and ribbon with sentiment. Each card is just a little different since it was cut from a 12x12 sheet.

Supplies (All supplies are Stampin'Up! unless otherwise noted) :

• Stamps: Cute and Curly
  
• Paper: Whisper white, Basic Grey Dasher DP collection
  
• Ink: Cranberry crisp
• Accessories: Ribbon, chunky glitter

For these next few cards I was trying to use up my Vintage Violet paper stash, which was one of the first "in colors" offered by Stampin'Up!. The first few are the fun Christmas tree Fluffles images and the last is a more traditional design. It didn't show up on the picture at all, but in person the card looks a lot prettier because there's glitter mixed in with the white embossing powder, so the card sparkles.

Supplies (All supplies are Stampin'Up! unless otherwise noted) :

• Stamps: Fluffles Tree by Stampendeous, Best Yet, Snowflake spot, Cute and Curly
• Paper: Vintage violet, whisper white
  
• Ink: Vintage violet, Versamark, sage shadow
• Accessories: Silver Stickles, Diamonds EP
  
• Tools: Cuttlebug, punches

~Olgy

Clean and Simple Embossed Cards

I'm having family in town this week for Thanksgiving, which is great, but there won't be much stamping and blogging for the next few days.

I did make a few quick CAS cards yesterday. I'm really happy with this Thank you card and it's fitting for the holidays this week. It was inspired by this Autumn Whimsey painting from art.com I embossed the image on Chocolate Chip cardstock, framed it by drawing a border around it and adding sentiment and finished it with a few pearls. I should have tried matting the pearls on darker circles, but I still like how it turned out.

Supplies (All supplies are Stampin'Up! unless otherwise noted) :

• Stamps: Agapanthus cluster by Stampendous
  
• Paper: Whisper white, chocolate chip
  
• Ink:Versamark and white EP
• Accessories: Pearls from the Pretties Kit

The second card is for this week's sponging CAS challenge. I sponged a red circle by cutting out a template on a separate piece of card stock, embossed and cut out a butterfly to pop it up over the circle, framed it like I did with the previous card, but instead of pearls I added buttons.

Supplies (All supplies are Stampin'Up! unless otherwise noted) :

• Stamps: Happy Harmony, God's Beauty
  
• Paper: Whisper white
  
• Ink: Really red, Versamark and black EP
• Accessories: Buttons
  
• Tools:

Thanks for stopping by and happy holidays.
~Olgy

Asian Inspired

I love cherry blossoms. I'm drawn to pictures, paper, stamps and anything else with their image. Even the header on my blog has cherry blossoms. Today's SCS featured stamper Birgit had so many gorgeous cards, but I just couldn't take my eyes off of this cherry blossoms one. My card plays off the branch and flower design, but I used a different frame, layered DP and vellum for subtle background design and used leaf branches with Prima flowers. The sentiment is stamped on Far East paper and the edges and flowers sponged for extra dimension.

I couldn't pass up CASing a cherry blossom card without adding some cherry blossoms of on my own, so I decorated the inside of the card with the Artfully Asian stamp and Far East DP.  

Supplies (All supplies are Stampin'Up! unless otherwise noted):

• Stamps: Wonderful words, Artfully Asian
• Paper: Pretty in pink, chocolate chip, vellum, Far East DP by Die Cuts With a View
• Ink: Chocolate chip
• Accessories: Prima flowers, ribbon, silver chord, Pretties kit
  
• Tools: Little Leaves Sizzlits, Bigz Top Note die, Martha Stewart border punch

~Olgy

Sweet Grey Fluffles and CAS Cards

The Thanksgiving week is almost here and there's still lots to do, so I'll keep this post short and sweet. First of all, Melissa, I pulled your name out of the hat for the 2nd card and a few other goodies, so email me your snail mail address. Robbie, send me your address too and I'll mail you one of the remaining cards.
 
Now, on to my latest favorite - sweet Fluffles with a bouquet of flowers. I can't resist adding rhinestones to the flower centers every time I use this stamp. 

Supplies (All supplies are Stampin'Up! unless otherwise noted) :

• Stamps: Grasshopper Fluffles by Stampendeous, So Very
  
• Paper: Basic grey, pretty in pink, whisper white, Around the Block DP
  
• Ink: Basic black, always apricot, certainly celery, pretty in pink, almost amethyst, Copics (C5, C7)
• Accessories: Prima flowers, rhinestones, metal frame by Spare Parts, basic grey taffeta ribbon
  
• Tools: Martha Stewart border punches

I made my CAS41 card a day late, but here it is anyway. I used the colors from this purse (except in Imperial Toile color) for the inspiration piece. The card is 5 1/2 x5 1/2 in with just a layer of DP over the base, ribbon and a flower. The hardest part was lining up the corners when I was using the border punch, but I was done in about 7 minutes flat.

Supplies :

• Paper: Very vanilla by Stampin'Up!, Uptown Layered circles by Paper Studio
  
• Ink: Pixie pink
• Accessories: Heidi Swapp flower
  
• Tools: Martha Stewart border punch

Thanks for stopping by.

~Olgy

CAS Winter Design

I have a few more CAS cards for you that I made for the winter design challenge. Both take just 5 minutes and even though the lighting on my photos wasn't great, they look cute in hand. The first one is an engagement card based on the fantastic grid sketch from Susan, who has a very inspiring blog called Simplicity, dedicated to clean and simple cards. I had few ideas for this card, but finally settled on using Prima flowers instead of stamped images. To make the flowers stand out more against grey background, I set them on punched out 1" white circles. In the center of each flower is a small rhinestone. The sentiment is embossed with white diamonds EP. Corners are rounded for a softer look.

Supplies (All supplies are Stampin'Up! unless otherwise noted):

• Stamps: Wonderful words
  
• Paper: Basic grey, whisper white
  
• Ink: Versamark and white diamond EP
• Accessories: Prima flowers, rhinestones
  
• Tools: 1" circle punch

This one is my winter wonderland card. It's a no layers card unless you count a thin strip of wrapping paper on the inside of the card that shows through under the punched border. The snowflakes are glittery rub-ons I had from last year and my new favorite ribbon with shimmering white on one side and shimmering brown on the other.

Supplies:

• Stamps: None
  
• Paper: Light blue Bazzil, wrapping paper from SU!
  
• Accessories: Me & My Big Ideas snowflake glitter rub-ons, ribbonFX
  
• Tools: Martha Stewart border punch

~Olgy

FS145 Challenge

Today is Sunday, which means a featured stamper challenge on SCS. My first card is based on this pretty card from TreasureOiler.

Supplies (All supplies are Stampin'Up! unless otherwise noted):

• Stamps: Pocket Silhouettes
• Paper: Very vanilla, chocolate chip, certainly celery, Saffron from SEI Dill Blossom collection
  
• Ink: Really rust, certainly celery
• Accessories: Buttons, Offray ribbon
  
• Tools: Oval punches, Nestabilities, Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder

The second card is based on this one. I just lover her original so I played around with different colors and modifications to the sketch.

Supplies (All supplies are Stampin'Up! unless otherwise noted):

• Stamps: Cupcakeabella by Stampingbella
  
• Paper: Cameo coral, blush blossom, Tender Love and Care from EK Success wedding collection
  
• Ink: Basic black, so saffron, Copics (E00, E49, E57, R22, R20, R29)
• Accessories: Jumbo eyelets, Stickles, Glossy Accents, rhinestone, ribbon
  
• Tools: Punch, Crop-a-dile

~Olgy

Vampire Girl Color Challenge

As promised, here's a layout for Candy Shoppe Designs Team Edward vs Team Jacob Challenge. I chose to be the vampire girl so my layout had to be full red, black and BLING! Well, I can't pass up on an excuse to use glitter, rhinestones and anything else that sparkles...

The theme of my page is actually not related to Halloween, but is titled "Miss Personality" and is a page about me. This is a copy of an old photo of me as a baby and my mom. I really wanted to add some lace to soften the dramatic red and black background, but since I didn't have any I just used border punches to recreate the same effect. For the layered flower embellishment I colored one of the white flowers red and then stamped over it with black, once it dried I covered it with Stickles. I also added a decorative pin, sheer leaves that Laura sent me last month and swirl chipboard. The journaling is printed on vellum, distressed with red ink, stamped with silver swirl and topped with rhinestones. I also used a glittery letter for my title and shimmery ribbons. Maybe I went overboard with the bling, but I think the layout still has an elegant look and I had a lot of fun with this challenge.

Don't forget that you have until tomorrow to leave a comment on CAS card post, I'll choosing one comment at random to send a surprise.

Supplies:

• Stamps: Nightingale's Song Alphabet from Inkque Boutique, Heidi Grace swirl stamp
  
• Paper: Recognition from Basic Grey Scrlet's Letter collection, vellum, white
  
• Ink: Versamark and white diamonds EP, silver, real red from Stampin'Up! and black
• Accessories: Pretties Kit from Stampin'Up!, rhinestones, Primas, K&Company Twinkle Type Chipboard, Heidi Swapp Silhouette words, sheer leaves, ribbonFX, striped ribbon from Michael's, Stickles
  
• Tools:Martha Stewart border punch

~Olgy