Wishing You Sunshine - Amber Ink!

Today is my last day as Torch Bearer for Amber Ink, and I have one more project to share with you.  This one is for a sketch challenge over at Stamp, Scrap and Doodle.  You can see the details and play along with this week's challenge if you click here.  The prize is a $15.00 gift certificate to Amber Ink.  With that kind of money, you can get A LOT of images, so it is worth the time to head on over and play along!

Here's the sketch for this week:

I wanted to use some more of Amber Ink's iPaper, so I printed out a sheet of their Boots and 'Brellas paper, used it to create a mat and a die cut umbrella.  Here's my card:

It's been a fun month being on Amber Ink's team.  I really learned a lot about digital images and am no longer skeptical about using them in my projects.  They offer a lot of versatility in color, sizes and orientation - and don't take up a lot of room.  If you haven't tried out digital images yet, head over to Amber Ink and get a few images and iPaper to get you started.

Here are all of my projects together:

I'll be back tomorrow to pass the torch on to a fabulous cardmaker.  Just wait and see what she does with Amber Ink's products!

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

Christmas in July with Amber Ink

It's been a busy week at Amber Ink this week!  Were you able to hop along for the big birthday bash? Winners are announced over on the Amber Ink blog.  You can click here to see if you won.  Good luck!

This week, Amber Ink is sponsoring the challenge at Christmas Stampin' All Year Long.  With temperatures soaring over 100 degrees lately, it was nice to think of a cooler time of year for just a bit.  The challenge this week is to create a card with our favorite color(s).  My favorite color is green, so this was pretty easy to pull off with a Christmas theme. 

Here's my card using Amber Ink's images from 'Tis the Season:

To get started, I printed the Holiday Cheer Green iPaper, then put it back in the printer and printed the tree image over the green.  Then I printed the tree image on white paper and then Kraft.  After cutting out the image from the green and white papers, I adhered the white paper down on the Kraft mat and applied some glue and glitter to make it sparkle.  Then I used some dimensionals to adhere the tree and give it some lift.  The star on top is also from the 'Tis the Season set.

After stamping the sentiment, adding the ribbon and some ink on the edges, I was finished.

Here's a close-up so you can get a better view of that new, awesome iPaper from Amber Ink:

If you want to play along with this week's challenge at Christmas Stampin' All Year Long and maybe win some awesome goodies from Amber Ink, click here.

I'll be back tomorrow for my last project as a torch bearer!

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

Happy Birthday, Amber Ink!

Are you here for the party?  It's a big one isn't it? Amber Ink is one-year old and I am lucky enough to be celebrating with them.  Here's what they have to say:

Twelve short months ago

we made our big debut,
So now we'd like to commemorate
our 1st birthday with you!

This flash mob of torchbearers
always light our way.
Won't you please jog along
on our special day?

Leave your comments here and there
over the next 48
On Friday we'll announce the loot
Don't wait...let's CELEBRATE!

So, come on - visit each blog listed below, leave a comment and then go back to Amber Ink on Friday to see if you are a prize winner!  Easy peasy!  

Here's my birthday card for Amber Ink:

The train images are new from Amber Ink - even the hearts and the stars are in the set.  I loved using Photoshop to color the images and flip them around the way I wanted.  I cut out each piece and popped them up on the white panel.  The gingham paper is from Amber Ink as well.

I hope you enjoy the hop over the next couple of days.  Sit back, relax and be prepared to be inspired.  Here's a list of the hoppers:

Card Camp - Week 4

I love this week's color combo at Summer Card Camp!  Blues and greens - awesome!  It's been a fun four weeks of camp with a ton of inspiration, videos, color combos and wonderful prizes!  I'm hoping to keep all the PDFs in a file and look to them when I need an extra push to create.

Here's my card I created last night:

I used ink and a soft cloth to create the sky and grass on a piece of Vintage Cream cardstock.  After stamping and coloring in the leaves of the tree, I added Glossy Accents to give them some dimension.  The bird is die-cut from Blueberry Sky paper with a few Stickles on the wing for sparkle.  The three flowers have some sparkle to them as well since I colored them in with my Sakura Stardust pen.  I added some texture in the clouds by running them through my Big Shot with the Canvas Impression plate. 

This card is for a very special friend of mine, but I won't say who because sometimes she reads my blog.  She's getting ready for some changes in her career, and I want her to know I'm thinking about her.

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

 

Welcome Summer

I live in Texas.  It's hot.  In recent history, our hottest summer where I live was in 2009.  Temperatures skyrocketed to over 100 degrees 68 times that summer.  We were miserable.  Back then, we knew we would talk of it as the hottest summer ever.

Fast forward just 2 years.  Our temperatures reached over 90 degrees on April 1!  We knew then that it would be a record-setting summer.  Now, the middle of July, we have reached over 100 degrees 31 times already.  On this same date back in 2009, the hottest summer ever, we had "only" reached that point 28 times.  We are ahead of schedule. 

So, this week's challenge at Wee Memories was to create a Summertime themed project.  This wasn't hard for me to do since I've been living in summertime since April 1.  You can get all the information here.   

Here's what I came up with:

See that gingham paper?  Everyone wants/needs gingham paper, right?  It's from Amber Ink.  You can get it here.  They have several colors, and are super-easy to work with. 

I wanted to go for a bright, colorful card, and I wanted to use the cherry set from Fruit Fusion.  It had gone uninked for too long.  The banner die is from Spellbinders.  After embossing it in my Big Shot, I left it in the die and sponged some ink over the parts that were showing.  This gives the banner a little edge to it, which I love.

Cherries are my favorite summer fruit.  I get them as often as possible, as long as they aren't $5.00 a pound.  

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!  See you tomorrow!

Card Camp Week 3

This is another card for this week's Make It Monday, where Dawn inspired us to create pockets as focal points for our cards.  You can see the video and sample cards by clicking here.

I'm in my 3rd week of the Summer Card Camp classes with Kristina Werner and Jennifer McGuire.  The videos, tutorials, samples are colors are very inspiring.   I love this week's color combo! 

Red with cream and brown is a favorite combo for me, but three shades of brown was a bit difficult. I think I was able to pull it off with the use of some real wood birch paper.

Here's my card:

The idea behind the Make It Monday challenge is to use the edger dies from Papertrey Ink to create the borders.  I don't have any edger dies and turn my head quickly from my monitor anytime I see one used - and chant in my head, "I do not need that.  I do not need that."  I tried that with the impression plates too, but now I own a half-dozen of those.  Maybe I'll be stronger about the edgers.

So, I used a punch - and one of my favorites.  I know I've told you how much I love the grass punch from Fiskars I used on my other Make It Monday card, but I also love this bracket border punch from EK Success.  It punches and embosses. 

It's also the same shape as the side of Mat Stack 4 - a happy coincidence.  So that is what I used as my tag that fits in my pocket.

I'm hoping to get another card done for the Card Camp before Sunday night!  We'll see if time is on my side!

Tomorrow I'll be back with a summery card for Jenny's Wee Memories Challenge!  Should be fun!

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

More Amber Ink

I know I promised you another Make It Monday card using the colors from this week's Card Camp, but I couldn't wait.  I wanted to post a new project from Amber Ink, using this Pink Blossom iPaper and this cute sentiment. 

 

Have I told you how awesome Amber Ink's paper is once you actually have it in your sweet, little hands?  Wow!  I am still amazed about how well it prints and looks on projects.  I love the Pink Blossom paper, along with the Green Blossom paper I showed a couple of weeks ago.  It is very happy paper and I loved using it!

I die cut several flowers from one copy of the paper, printed another piece (because it's right there on my hard drive and I don't have to worry about wasting a precious piece!) to create the bottom panel.  Can you see the stitching?  I stitched around the entire mat with yellow thread.

The sentiment is very fun with that little heart in the middle of the "O."  Little details like that make Amber Ink products FUN to work with!

Go. Check. Them. Out.  (here)

OK - so TOMORROW - I will have that other card I told you about!  Promises, promises.

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

Make It Monday-Pockets

It has been awhile since I was able to participate in a Make It Monday challenge, so I wanted to make sure and get a head start on Dawn's challenge this week.  You can see the video and sample cards by clicking here. 

Dawn challenged us to use edger dies to create pockets as focal points on our cards.  I don't have any edger dies...yet...so I opted to use a border punch - my favorite one right now, the grass punch from Fiskars.

Here is my first card for this week's challenge:

I used patterned paper from Echo Park to create the sky portion of the card, and Jillibean Soup to create the ground, lilly pad and leaves for the flower. The flower was die cut with Vintage Cream and Ocean Tides felt.

Here's a picture of the little tag I created for the pocket.  It's intended to be a bookmark for my little boy.  He's totally into chapter books right now, specifically The Boxcar Children books, so I thought I'd create something special for him to use.

I popped the frog on the lilly pad up with pop dots so that he would slide into the pocket and over the grass.

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!  I'll be back tomorrow with another pocket card using the colors from this week's Summer Card Camp!

Hello Friend!

This is my third card for this week's camp.  I'm hoping to dig out some patterned paper and see if I can get one more in for this week.  For this card, I kept it simple using dies, an impression plate and buttons.

I talked myself out of the Sunshine Impression plate from PTI so many times I can't even count them. So glad that I finally left it in my cart.  It's one of my favorites.

The only hard part about this card was threading the twine through the buttons - that took some time, but I like them better with the twine.  Do you have a preference for buttons - with twine or without?  I'd love to know what you think!

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

Apple of My Eye!

This is my second card for this week's Summer Card Camp.  I haven't gotten around to using any patterned paper for the challenge yet - maybe later. 

I haven't had a chance to play around with my Fruit Fusion stamps and dies that I got from PTI yet, so I knew I wanted to use them.  Seems that every time I go to the produce section, I see every color of apple imaginable, so I thought now would be a good time to use the apple set.  Even though technically, apples are a fall fruit!

Here's my card:

I'm also going to link this card to my blog group's challenge:

Deena's challenge is to use a background stamp.  In my card I used Background Basics: Tin Type from PTI.  I love how it echoes the pattern in the apple!  You should come play along with us.  We have challenges every couple of weeks - just for fun, no pressure.  Here's the link to our blog. 

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!  I'll be back tomorrow with one more card for this week's camp.

Card Camp - Week 2

Last week was the first week of Summer Card Camp, and I was sorry to miss the beginning, but I'm back now and have 3 cards to submit for this week.  How's that for make-up work?!

Here's the first one:

I CASE'd a card I created a few weeks ago.  (Is it OK to CASE yourself?)  I loved the technique I had learned, and loved the card when I made it.  I gave it away to a friend for her birthday the day after, so I wanted to create another one, this time with this week's color combo. 

After Kristina's video today, I'm digging through all of my patterned paper to make a 4th card.  We'll see if that happens!  Off to finish the third one before I get to the patterned paper!

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

P.S.  Thanks to Tami Hartley for drawing my name from her comments for the Summer Camp giveaway!

P.P.S.  I received an email from Paper Crafts Magazine today letting me know they chose one of my cards to be published in their January/February issue!  My first publication - so excited!

Less is More and Amber Ink

HI!  Long time, no blog!  

I'm back from my trip to California, which was wonderful.  Fourteen hours at Disneyland and I lived to tell about it.  Turns out my 6-year old is a HUGE fan of roller coasters - the bigger the better.  I had to suck it up and get on all of them with him; roller coasters and I never really got along very well.  Turns out, I did better than I thought I would, mainly because my son would giggle the entire time.  Hearing that beautiful sound made it worth it!

We also went to Legoland, the San Diego Zoo and Natural History Museum (dinosaurs, you know!)  There was also plenty of time spent at the beach.  It was a great trip.

Waiting for me when I got home was my third assignment for Amber Ink, which is sponsoring July's challenges at Less Is More challenge blog.  This week the challenge is:

SHADES of BLUE

I was so excited to find some awesome iPaper on Amber Ink's website.  You can find the paper I used in the card here. 

Here's my card:

After printing the paper, I die-cut the mat, and cut a strip to adhere to the inside.  The bottom of the card is punched with an EK Success punch and opens to the strip on the inside.  The sentiment is also from Amber Ink, printed and punched.  Even though it is a clean and simple card, I wanted to add a little bling to it, so I lined the circle edge with blue rhinestones. 

Here's a close-up so you can see the iPaper more closely.  I don't even have a top-notch printer, and the paper looks awesome!  

You can play along with the challenge at Less is More by clicking here.  The winner of the challenge receives a $25.00 gift certificate to Amber Ink.  With the great prices and great selection, you will be set up for some great cards and layouts!

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!  Now that I'm home, I'll be back soon with more cards and layouts soon!

Amber Ink Project 2

So, I was digging around the Amber Ink store the other day and found some beautiful paper.  Not having ever used digi-paper before, I must admit that I was a bit skeptical.  I don't have a color-laser printer at home, so how good can the paper really look if it's not printed on a top-notch printer?

Well, let me tell you.  One push of the print button and I was H-O-O-K-E-D.  It can look awesome!  If you have been afraid to plunge into the digi-paper, fear no more.  Amber Ink has some great choices, fun colors and a good price tag.

Here's what I made with this paper and this sentiment:

For the sentiment I just loaded it into my photo-editing program, changed the colors and printed.  To add a little texture and dimension, I stitched around the edges and popped up the sentiment.  

Just for fun, I also bought this same paper in the pink version.  So pretty.  Off to go use it now. 

Go on over to Amber Ink  and pick you up some new paper.  You'll be glad you did.

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

Be Back Soon!

I've scheduled a blog post for Monday, but other than that, I'm going to go and dip my feet in here for a bit.  Be back soon!

Sweet Sketch Wednesday Meets Amber Ink

Today is my first official day as Torchbearer for Amber Ink - supplier of awesome digi-stamps, digi-papers and clear stamps (if you are patient for the mailman!)  Did you follow my advice yesterday and poke around their blog and store?  Totally cool, huh?  You buy, download and print.  How much easier could it be?

This week, Amber Ink  is sponsoring the sketch contest over at Sweet Sketch Wednesday.  You could win a  $15.00 gift certificate to Amber Ink!!  Here's the great sketch we have been given:

 

You know how much I love sketches.  They give me just the jump start I need, and I can make my project as simple or embellished as I want - depending on how much time I have, of course.  

So, here's my project for this week's sketch:

I used the sweet little super hero boy you can find in Amber Ink's store here,  along with the sentiment you can find here.  All I had to do after downloading the images, is open them in my photo-editing program, choose colors and print.  The little hero up there reminds me of another little boy I know. 

To add a little texture to the card, I embossed some star stamps on the red panel and applied a strip of blue felt stars to the white strip.  The sentiment was popped up for dimension.  

I hope you can join in on all the fun at Sweet Sketch Wednesday this week, and why don't you go ahead and discover how easy digi-stamps can be. Amber Ink  has some great ones - and so affordable!

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

I'm Kinda Excited!

 

Did you see it?  My name?  It's up there ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^!!!!

Thanks to my friend, Renee, for passing the blue torch of Amber Ink to me yesterday.   Now, I get to spend the next month making cards and layouts with their awesome products!  They have digi-paper, digi-stamps and clear stamps!  You can see the announcement on the Amber Ink Blog here. 

I'll let you in on a little secret.   

I've already made 3 projects with their stuff.

Shhh!!  

I'll show you my first project tomorrow.  

Until then, you may want to visit the other members of the team this month.  You won't be disappointed:

Penni at Lazy Cat Cards

Nina at Ninarsku 

Cammie at Cuttin' Up 

Lynette at My Life in Haysville

And while you are out there in blog-land, looking around, stop by Amber Ink and see what all the fuss is about.  Believe me - you'll be glad you did!

See you tomorrow with my first project!

Thanks a Million!

This card is for one of my husband's college buddies.  They were roommates.  Both engineering majors.  My husband was electrical engineering and his buddy was chemical engineering.  Can you imagine the brain-power in that dorm room?  Wow.

I had heard the roommate's name long before I met him, heard every story ten times, so when I did meet him, I already knew him, already loved him.  My husband admired him greatly, not only for his brain but for his personality.  To my husband, this guy was the smartest guy in the world, but he could carry on conversations with anyone and not let on just how smart he is - just be an everyday guy.  Oh, and funny.  He was so funny and outgoing - not at all the stereotypical engineer.

My husband was like that too.  Smart, funny, full of personality - didn't fit the stereotype either.  That's probably why they loved each other so much.

After my husband's funeral, we all gathered back at the house, of course.  His roommate began to talk about my husband and how much smarter MY husband was than he was.  How my husband pushed him to think differently, make better grades, taught him how to study, and that he wouldn't be where he is today if it weren't for my husband.    I was shocked to hear him say that.  How funny is it that each of them thought the other to be the intellectual superior? 

His roommate talked about the first time they were doing homework and my husband pulled out a Hewlett Packard 28S graphing calculator - which was about a $400 calculator back in 1988.  He said, "I knew at that moment, that this guy was serious and knew what he was doing." 

I knew exactly which calculator he was talking about.  My husband used it up until 2006 when he had to upgrade to a new one. 

So, after boxing up my husband's technical books, I emailed all his engineering buddies telling them that they could have any books or other engineering stuff they wanted.  Guess what the roommate wanted?

Yeah, the calculator.  

So, it's his.  I'm mailing it to him on Monday along with the manual - yes, my husband still had the manual.  And I'm including this card, thanking him for being a good friend for all these years.

Does it kind of resemble a calculator? That was the intent.  And the colors are their college colors.  I hope he likes it.

The number stamp is from Technique Tuesday, and the sentiment, which I selectively inked, is from PTI's Inside and Out Thank You. 

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place today!

Celebrate You!

Wednesday was my sister's birthday - my OLDEST sister.  I like to rub it in a little bit, actually a lot. 

And in my true nature lately, I just mailed her card today, although it was created and ready in plenty of time for her birthday.  I just hadn't gone to the store yet to get her the traditional birthday gift from me.  I went on her actual birthday to get her gift, and should have mailed it with her card that day, or even yesterday, but I didn't. 

That's OK.  She'll understand.  She hasn't given our other sister her birthday present yet, and it was in October.  So, I think I'm good.

Here's her card:

I used two of my new stamp sets from Stamps of Life on this one - the dictionary4me and scream4icecream sets.  Love them both.  Again, to add a little sparkle I outlined the cone and icecream in my Sakura Stardust pen.  I hope they never stop making that thing - LOVE it!

The Kraft panel was stamped with my favorite background from PTI's Tin Type, and the sentiment is from Inside and Out Birthday. 

I love pink, cream and Kraft together.  I forgot how yummy it is until I started putting this together. 

This will be my last card for Jenny's challenge at Wee Memories.  It ends tonight.  I think this is #9 for me.  She may reconsider giving us unlimited entries after seeing all my stuff!  You have a few hours left if you want to play along.  Here's the link.

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place today!