Thinking Outside the Box with Circles

This week's sketch at The Stampin' Queen's Sketch Challenge is all about circles.  This one  kind of threw me off and I am really not sure whether I like what I came up with or not.

Here is the sketch-

and here is the card.

Ingredients for this card include:

Stamps- Nature Walk, Teeny Tiny Wishes, Inspired by Nature

Paper- So Saffron, Only Orange, Naturals White, Twitterpated dp

Ink- Lucky Limeade, Pumpkin Pie, True Thyme, Basic Grey, Regal Rose, Cranberry Crisp, Stazon Black

The aqua painter was used to color the bee and the butterfly.  The circles were popped up on dimensionals.

Thank you for stopping by and, as always, your comments are greatly appreciated!

Extended Punch Tutorial

The question has been asked, how do you make the jewelry punch tag longer than the punch is, as in the following card-

You will need to start with your paper being no wider than the width of your punch. 
                                                                     

Then you will feed the paper from the front of the punch up into the body of the punch and out through the punch opening.  

 Pull your paper back as close to the edge of the punch as you want it and punch.  

If you want both ends punched, repeat the process, starting with feeding the already punched end of the paper into the front of the punch.  You can customize the length of your punched paper to whatever length you want.  

 And the finished punches-

Thanks for stopping by-I hope this tutorial helped you in getting the maximum use out of your punches!

Easter

Yeah!  Can you believe it?? It is March!  Not that we had a bad winter or anything here in Missouri, but the thought of warmer days and longer days ahead (not to mention summers off) is so exciting!  I am doing my second (but really first official) Stampin' Up party this month for a friend and she requested an Easter card.  The Nature Walk eggs jumped out at me and after sifting though card galleries, this is what I settled on (for now)-

Everything used is Stampin' Up unless otherwise noted.  The card base and 2 stamped panels are Naturals Ivory.  The larger panel is stamped with Inspired by Nature in Lucky Limeade and the edges are sponged with my favorite distressing ink.  This panel is mounted on the wonderful Calypso Coral CS.  The smaller panel is stamped twice with the adorable row of eggs from Nature Walk and is colored in with the Aqua Painter and Bashful Blue, So Saffron, Calypso Coral, Luck Limeade and Apricot Appeal ink.  The edges are also sponged and the panel is mounted on Lucky Limeade CS.  The right end of the Lucky Limeade is punched with the 1 3/8" circle punch by pulling the strip of paper up through the circle punch opening and punching the partial circle.  A Baker's twine bow (Sweet n Sassy Stamps) is tied and finished off with a So Saffron button.  The Happy Easter sentiment is stamped in Chocolate Chip and punched with the jewelry tag punch using the same technique as was used with the circle punch, above.  The other end of the sentiment panel was also punched this way.  the sentiment was tied to the button with embroidery floss. 
Thanks so much for stopping by and Happy Spring!

CREATE

Well, I am not necessarily fond of this card overall, but I like parts of it.  I love the background, which is the technique that was featured at SCS a couple of weeks ago- wrinkle- free distress.  I love GREEN- it symbolizes rebirth or new birth.  It reminds me of the many wonders of God's creation, of exploring the beautiful world around us.  I makes me think spring, washing away the winter blues; so I used many shades of green.  The technique challenge at SCS this week is to incorporate a banner on your card-hence the banner.  Stampin' Sister in Christ's challenge is to CREATE a card using variegated colors. 

This is a card a will keep for myself, reminding me to continue to create and to remind me of the Creator and all the beautiful things He has created for us. 

I used Stampin' Up inks, Collage Alphabet stamp set, Tiny Tags stamp set, Naturals White card stock and various shades of green card stock for this project.  The Baker's twine is from Sweet n Sassy stamps.  

Thanks so much for stopping by and browsing! 

On to New Challenges

Today I discovered the Paper Players.  A great sketch was posted, so I decided to play.  I have been wanting to try the challenges over at the Colour Q as well, so I combined the challenges, something I don't do too well at and don't do too often!

This was a fun card to make.  I have not made a card of this size before( 3.5 x 6.5) and I would have never put these colors together had it not been for the Colour Q challenge.
The card ingredients include:
Stamps- Baroque Motifs, Tiny Tags
Paper- Naturals Ivory, Basic Gray(sorry, it has a blue look here), Lucky Limeade, Really Rust (it is the closest color I have to Dusty Durango); Twitterpated dsp
Other- Jewelry tag punch, Scallop circle punch, 1.25" circle punch, Blossom petals punch, Simply Scored, paper piercer and mat pack

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Your comments are greatly appreciated.